Forgotten Ones
by Dual Minded Wolf
Summary: DISCONTINUED.
1. Chapter 1: A New Challenge

Jacy: Well, I and my two friends have been chatting and I had a random urge to post the first chapter of Forgotten Prophecy's sequel, Forgotten Ones. And I know I said I'd do Extra and Forgotten Chapters for Forgotten Prophecy, but I decided to do an entire series and do that afterwards for all of them (Maybe).

Kain: And I've changed my name for less confusion!

Wolf: _Right_, you changed it because you thought it sounded cooler.

Kain: Whatever, at least we finally show up in this one!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do however own my OCs and this story.

Side note: We have a contest for roles in my friends and my story _The Merge_; if you want more info check my profile!

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Forgotten Ones

Chapter 1: A New Challenge

A week had passed since the party and Jacy and Kera had gone back to their own realm whilst Blane had settled in with Talea at her home, or rather their home. Both of them decided that they'd spend most of their time as dragons so that Dex wouldn't be confused as to who his parents were and because it felt more natural to both of them. Everything seemed to be going well until, out of nowhere, Jacy appeared in the middle of their living room severely injured.

"Jacy!" Blane shouted, quickly shifting to his human form so he could help him better. The human looked to be unconscious and had several wounds covering his body, his clothing ripped and torn in various places, and he had a long scratch tracing the side of his face.

"I'll go get the gems from the garden outside!" Talea said quickly before she ran outside. Right after she left, Jacy's eyes shot open and he took a gasp of air.

"What happened to you?" Blane questioned.

"Merikh…survived," Jacy said, coughing up blood and spitting it on the floor, "He…came after…Kera and me. We fought him but…he was much stronger than before. I opened a portal…so she and I could escape. She pushed me through it…I don't know what happened to her."

Just then Talea came back in the house in her human form, carrying green and red gems in her arms. She went over to Jacy and laid them down next to him before she picked up a few and placed them in his hand. He crushed them and absorbed them, his wounds beginning to heal and some of his energy beginning to return. He pulled himself into a sitting position before looking at the two in front of him.

"I need you to come with me, Blane," he said seriously.

"Of course," Blane said unwaveringly.

"I'm coming, too," Talea said.

"Not happening," Blane said turning to look at her.

"No," Jacy agreed.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"It's too dangerous," Blane answered, "And someone needs to stay here with Dex."

"But–," Talea started to protest before Jacy cut her off.

"Blane will fight better knowing you and Dex are safe, Talea," he said, "and someone needs to inform everyone else as well."

"Alright," Talea said, turning to look at Blane, "You better not die."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said, grinning before he pulled her into a passionate kiss. Jacy stood up, grabbing a few more of the gems as he did and crushing them, and looked away. When they pulled away from one another, they stood up and watched as Jacy opened a portal to his realm. It swirled and pulsed with greenish energy, almost like it was alive.

"Do you have everything you need?" Jacy asked, not turning around.

"Hold on a moment," Blane said before he went over to where his sword was hanging on display on the wall and grabbing it, pulling it over his shoulder, and went over to where Jacy was waiting, "I'm all set."

"Good," Jacy said, "Because this is going to be the worst battle you've ever faced."

"Good luck," Talea called as they stepped through the portal. After they'd passed through it, the portal winked out of existence, leaving Talea alone in the room. She shifted into her dragon form once more and sighed.

"Mommy, where's Daddy?" came a childish voice from behind her. She turned to see Dex looking up at her with his big amber eyes.

"Daddy's helping a few of his friends, baby," Talea said sweetly, "He'll be back."

In Jacy's Realm…

Blane and Jacy stepped out of the portal and found themselves standing in the remains of what looked to be a city of some sort. It didn't look like any city that Blane had been to during his time in this realm but he did remember that Jacy said they moved around a lot so they wouldn't be found by any of their enemies, which they had quite a few of.

The city looked devoid of life, which wasn't all that surprising as few humans were left alive and intact after the near-apocalypse. Jacy closed the portal behind him before putting his hands into two smaller portals that he made near them and pulled out a pair of pistols, Desert Eagles if Blane remembered correctly. He holstered them in the thigh holsters he had attached to his legs before one of the portals closed while the other got larger. He placed both hands into it and, after a moment of struggling, pulled out an MG4 machine gun before the portal closed.

Blane unsheathed his sword and pulled a small dagger that he kept in the side of his boot out. He'd crafted it himself, made of a steel-titanium alloy, and had a small ring attached to the bottom of the hilt so he could spin it if he needed to.

"It's a lot more dangerous than when you were here, Blane," Jacy said, his eyes scanning everywhere as the two of them began to move forward, "The Survivors, the group of humans and a handful of nonhumans that I used to lead, were all but wiped out and there were a good thousand of them. They were based here and I wouldn't be surprised if a few of them were 'hanging around,' if you catch my meaning."

"Were there any who survived?" Blane asked, holding his dagger with the blade pointing behind him while his sword was held out in front of him.

"A few," Jacy said, "but I don't know where they are now. They were…different than most of the others that I led."

"Different how?" Blane asked curiously just as he saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye. He spun to face it quickly only to find what appeared to be a little girl grasping a teddy bear.

Jacy, recognizing the child, went over to her and knelt down in front of her before saying, "Sarah, where are your parents and the others?"

Sarah clutched the bear tightly to her chest before pointing behind him and Blane. They turned around to see a man and a woman standing on top of a rather small, decrepit-looking building. As he looked at them, Blane realized something was…strange about them. They both had a pair of large, bird-like wings growing out of their backs.

The man had close-cropped, silver hair and blue eyes, his wings the same color as his hair and speckled with white. He wore a grey shirt that was ripped and torn in places, the sleeves missing completely, and a pair of torn jeans. He had a thin scar tracing the side of his cheek and he held an Intervention M-200 sniper rifle in his arms.

The woman had shoulder-length black hair and silver eyes, her wings as black as her hair with patches of silver. She wore a white shirt covered in dried blood with rips and tears covering it, and a pair of tight, skinny jeans that hugged her form nicely. She held an M21 EBR sniper rifle and had a long scar going from her right shoulder to the tip of her middle finger.

"Good to see you're alive, Jacy," the man called, his voice deep but not menacing, "but it seems you lost one friend and found another."

"He's here to help, Aingeru," Jacy said irritatedly, "You know as well as I do that Merikh wouldn't kill her because he knows I'd feel it if he did. He _wants_ me to try to rescue her so he can capture me, so I'm trying to get as many people that can help me save her as possible."

"You care so much for this girl yet you have yet to put a ring on her," the woman commented, "seems like you don't care for her as much as it seems."

"For your information, Rosangela, we were attacked while I was proposing," Jacy said angrily, "if you want to see the ring I'll gladly show it to you."

"I see what he meant by strange," Blane muttered, "Didn't realize that angels really existed."

"There are stranger things than angels," an eerie voice spoke from behind Blane, causing him to spin around and slice through a transparent figure. "Good thing I'm dead or that would've sucked."

The figure standing in front of Blane was what appeared to be a man in his late twenties wearing a slightly torn blazer over a ruined dress shirt. His pants were torn and ripped in places, but the most shocking feature about this man was the fact that Blane could see _through_ him. His hair was a dark, almost black, brown and his eyes were a strange shade of grey.

"In case you haven't realized, I'm a ghost," the transparent man said, his tone showing nothing but humor, "Name's Trevor."

"Sorry to disappoint you, Trevor, but you're not the first ghost I've seen," Blane said kindly, grinning, "It's nice to meet you, though."

"Ah, but I'm probably the first one you've seen that was able to do this!" Trevor said before he dived right into Blane's chest. Suddenly, Blane lost all feeling in his body before it started to move of its own accord. Realizing what was happening, Blane immediately put a barricade around his mind which caused Trevor to come flying out.

"Don't do that again, _ever_," Blane said, glaring at Trevor.

"Deal," Trevor said, "but you have to tell me how you did that!"

"Easiest way to put it," Blane said, "is that you're not the first to try to control me."

"If the two of you are done," Aingeru said impatiently, "we should get back to the safe house, it's not safe to be out in the open."

"Right," Jacy agreed before Aingeru and Rosangela jumped down from the building and landed just in front of them. Sarah ran over to Rosangela and she picked her up and held her one arm while she held her gun with the other.

"I'll meet you all there," Trevor said before he dissipated into a cloud of smoke.

"Damn ghost," Aingeru said before he and Rosangela began to walk forward, both of them on alert as they moved, with Jacy and Blane following close behind.

As they walked, Blane heard something behind them and turned around just as a fist connected with his skull, hard enough to knock him unconscious. Hearing the noise, the others spun around to see a black cloaked figure putting the half-dragon over his shoulder before he vanished from sight.

"Shit!" Jacy shouted, throwing his gun onto the ground and shouting at the sky, "Merikh, you bastard! Show yourself and fight me! Stop taking my friends you damn coward!"

There was no discernable response, but there was a loud groaning caused by a large group of familiar creatures.

"Zombies," Aingeru said, looking at Jacy with fury, "I hope you're happy, you fool, you've attracted a damn horde of them!"

Jacy didn't respond, just created two portals by each of his hands. He stuck his hands inside each and pulled out a pair of twin, differently colored katana. One of the katana was a deep crimson, with the word Fury engraved on the blade while the other was a light blue with the word Serenity engraved on it. He crossed them in an X in front of him before pulling them apart, creating a flurry of sparks.

"What are you doing?" Aingeru demanded.

"Standing my ground," Jacy answered emotionlessly, "If he's going to take my allies, I'm going to kill his."

"Are you insane?" Rosangela demanded, "Fighting this many is suicide!"

Jacy turned to look at the two of them to reveal that his green eyes had changed to two different colors. One was a dark, crimson red while the other was amber yellow, neither of which showed the normal calm and kindness they normally showed.

"I've been insane my entire life," he said, "and I've stared death in the face several times before, so I refuse to step down now."

"Who…are you?" Aingeru asked.

"I am Jacy, Wolf, and Kain," Jacy said, "and I am the one who bears the mark of Creation, the one destined to bring this planet back to its former glory, and it's time I started acting like it."

He turned back to face forward just as a huge horde of zombies came around a corner. They stopped for a moment to look at the small group in front of them before they charged. Jacy drew a line in the dirt with Fury before he looked up at the approaching threat. Jacy watched as the zombies seemed to slow down and he ran at them with his katana with the blades facing behind him before he collided with the mass of zombies.

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Jacy: Wow, can't believe Blane got captured that easily.

Wolf: I can't believe that you flipped out like that.

Kain: I can't believe it's not butter!

Jacy: …

Wolf: …


	2. Chapter 2: A Vendetta is Declared

Kain: This one's a doozy!

Wolf: The twists, the turns, the –

Kain: loop-de-loops!

Wolf: …Where's Jacy?

Kain: I'm not his babysitter…

Wolf: He's too old for a babysitter.

Kain: Whatever, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do however own my OCs and this story.

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Chapter 2: A Vendetta is Declared

Jacy slashed through the nearest zombie with Fury, causing an arc of crimson energy to fly from the blade and collide with several of the zombies. The zombies hit by the arc were immediately burnt to crisps before the arc dissipated. Aingeru and Rosangela watched in shock as this happened while Sarah merely hid her head in Rosangela's shoulder.

Jacy then slashed another zombie with Serenity and an arc of light-blue energy flew from the blade and froze every zombie in its path. When the ice blue arc had faded, almost every zombie was either frozen or charred to nothing. Jacy kicked the one nearest to him and it shattered, sending shards of ice flying at other frozen zombies and the ones left standing. After a moment, every zombie was on the ground, the undead life gone from their bodies.

Jacy turned back to face Aingeru and Rosangela before he began to walk towards them. As he walked towards them, his eyes faded back to their normal dark green and his swords disappeared in flashes of dark red and pale blue. When he reached them, he looked the same as he did before he attacked the now-destroyed zombie horde. As soon as he reached them, however, Aingeru picked him up by his neck, catching him off-guard.

"What the hell are you doing?" Jacy demanded. Aingeru didn't answered as Rosangela let go of her rifle, allowing it to hang loosely by the strap over her shoulder, before placing her now-free hand on his forehead and closed her eyes. After a few moments she opened her eyes and nodded at Aingeru before he dropped Jacy, causing him to stumble for a moment before he found his balance.

"Sorry," Aingeru apologized, "had to be sure you were still you."

"Of course I'm still me, who the hell else would I be?" Jacy said angrily, rubbing his neck.

"You…changed," Rosangela explained, "Your eyes turned different colors and you said you were three different people. We wanted to make sure that nothing was controlling you."

"Oh _that_," Jacy said, understanding, "Ever since I was born I've had two voices in my head, either giving me advice, trying to influence my choices, or just plain annoying me. However, it wasn't until recently that I learned that they're more than voices, they're the voices of the past Creation Ones. Every now and then they lend me their strength to fight or defend myself."

"So they're ghosties like Trevor?" Sarah asked, pulling her head out from Rosangela's shoulder and looking at Jacy with her big blue eyes.

Jacy smiled and said, "Not exactly, but they're similar. Unlike Trevor, they can't go into other people or take a semi-physical form."

"Oh," Sarah said, smiling as well as she turned to look at Rosangela and said, "Can we go back to the new home now Mommy?"

Rosangela smiled and responded, "Of course, sweetie."

Sarah held onto her mother tightly as Rosangela flapped her wings a few times before taking flight. Aingeru grabbed the MG4 Jacy had thrown to the ground and handed it back to him. Jacy took it and slung the strap over his shoulder before he and Aingeru began to follow Rosangela on foot.

"You don't have to walk with me just because I can't fly, you know," Jacy pointed out.

"I know but Kera told me that once you got back that you aren't allowed to go anywhere outside the safe houses by yourself," Aingeru explained.

"Merikh captured her, didn't he?" Jacy asked softly, his pace slowing slightly as he looked at the ground.

"I'm afraid so, my friend," he responded reluctantly, "After she pushed you through the portal, we were surrounded by those damn undead. She fought well and managed to hold them off so we could escape, but she herself was captured in the process."

Jacy stopped walking and, without looking up, said, "I'm going after him and getting them out of there."

Aingeru spun around immediately and said, "That's suicide! He's gotten a lot stronger since you defeated him last time, the only reason you're still alive is because he sees you as a player in his sick little game and right now you're the biggest challenge for him. If you go to try and rescue everyone, you'll be playing right into his hands."

"I don't care," Jacy said, looking up, "All those people he has captured are there because he wants me to come to him, it's my fault he took them. I'm going to get them back, whether I come back with them or not."

"If you think that I'm letting you go alone you're a fool," Aingeru said, watching Jacy closely, "However, we have to get back to the other Survivors and inform them of your return and plan; I doubt any of them will let you go alone, either."

Jacy nodded his head in understanding before he created a portal next to him. He stuck his hand inside and pulled out what looked like a snowboard before it closed. It was a mixture of white and light green with the same mark he had on his shoulder on the bottom of it. He sat it on the ground and strapped his feet to it before, much to Aingeru's surprise, the board began to hover off the ground.

"How did you learn to make _that_?" Aingeru questioned.

"My powers are only limited by my imagination, among a few other things," Jacy said, smirking, "Now c'mon, we have to catch up with Rosangela and Sarah!"

Jacy took off fast and Aingeru quickly took flight so he wouldn't lose him.

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Blane let out a groan as he regained consciousness. He lifted his hand to rub the bump he now had on his head from where he'd been hit and knocked unconscious. As he did, he opened his eyes and found that he was no longer in the destroyed city; instead he was in a cage in some dark place.

"Where the hell am I?" He wondered aloud, not expecting the answer he received.

"An arena to fight as entertainment," someone said from behind him. He spun around to find he wasn't alone in the cage. On the other side of the cave was, what looked to be, a fifteen or sixteen year old boy with messy red hair and blue eyes. His clothes were ripped and torn in places, revealing scars and fresh wounds underneath.

"And you are?" Blane asked, his eyes narrowing.

"A veteran gladiator," the boy said, "name's Aaron."

"A veteran gladiator? You're just a kid!" Blane exclaimed, pulling his hand away from his head.

"I don't know where you've been for the last five years, gramps, but no one's a kid anymore," Aaron said sharply, "Especially not in this hellhole."

"How long have you been in this place?" Blane asked, leaning back against the bars of the cage as he watched Aaron closely.

"Since I was eleven," he said, looking up, "a year after the first attack by Merikh and his army of zombies. They killed my parents, were about to kill me too, when I took two of them down with my bare hands. Two grown men with guns taken down by an unarmed eleven year old boy, to this day I still don't know how I managed it."

"Humanity is a lot different here than from where I come from," Blane sighed, "Capturing others and forcing them to fight as entertainment, it's savagery."

"Where you come from?" Aaron echoed, looking back at Blane in confusion, "What the hell does that mean?"

"I'm from another realm, got a mate and a hatchling there," Blane said, "I'm here because a friend of mine needs my help."

"Mate? Hatchling?" Aaron asked, confused further before he noticed Blane's slightly pointed ear and his eyes widened it surprise, "You're a dragon!"

"Half-dragon, actually," he corrected, "My mother was a dragoness and my father a human. Have you never seen a dragon before?"

"Well, no," Aaron admitted, "Frankly, I thought they were just stories, though I heard that The Survivors have quite a few of them on their side."

"I don't know, Jacy never told me anything about them, let alone that he _led_ them," Blane said, causing Aaron to gasp in surprise.

"You know Jacy? The Jacy who leads the Survivors and supposedly has the power to create _anything_?" he asked, shocked.

"The very same," Blane said, amused by the boy's reaction, "He's the friend who needs my help. His girlfriend and several others have been captured by Merikh and he needs my help to rescue them."

"Wow…" Aaron said, "Do you think he'll come and try to get you out of here?"

"He won't have to," Blane said, grinning, "I'm busting out."

"Are you mad?" Aaron demanded, "No one escapes this place!"

"Exactly, no _one _escapes this place," he said, standing turning to look at the bars of the cage they were in, "I'm busting everyone else out with me. You in?"

"If there's a chance to escape this hellhole and join the Survivors, you can count me in," Aaron said, standing up with a determined look on his face.

"Good," he said before reeling his fist back, lighting it ablaze with white fire, and hitting the bars straight on. The bars either melted or were knocked free of the cage, allowing Blane and Aaron to step out of the cage freely.

"Feels good to get out of that thing," Aaron said, stretching.

"We're not out of the woods, yet," Blane said, lighting his other fist on fire as well just as several guards came in.

"And here I thought that we'd just walk out of here without a problem," Aaron chuckled before he got into a fighting stance as well.

"Nah, that'd make things easy," Blane laughed as well, "and I like a challenge."

The guards started shooting with their rifles but the two of them jumped out of the way quickly. Blane launched a blast of fire from one his hands at one of the guards and lit his clothes on fire. The man began to panic and dropped his gun in an attempt to stop-drop-and-roll faster. This left only two armed guards and Blane and Aaron rushed at them. They, too, began to panic and fired wildly. Blane quickly launched another blast of fire, this one much larger, and it melted the bullets before they could reach them and melted the guards' guns as well. The now unarmed guards quickly grabbed their singed, but otherwise unharmed, comrade and fled.

"They'll be back with more," Aaron said as he and Blane stood in the now-empty doorway.

"Then we have to act fast," Blane said, "How many other 'gladiators' are there?"

"About twenty," Aaron informed him, "they should be in cages in different rooms up and down this corridor, but not all of them are cut out for the world outside this compound."

Blane knelt down and grabbed the keys that the guard he'd set on fire had dropped when he'd scramble to put himself out and handed them to Aaron and said, "Release everyone, no one is going to be left here."

Aaron nodded in understanding as he took the keys and the guard's abandoned rifle before taking off to start releasing people. Blane, however, walked out into the corridor and stood in the middle of it. He put out one of his hands and reached underneath his tunic for the small locket he wore underneath. He opened it and inside it were two pictures, one on each half of the locket. One was a picture of him, Talea, and Dex, all of them smiling happily. It'd been taken the day after the party by Jacy, after Talea had given Blane the empty locket. On the other side was a picture of him, Jacy, and Kera. All of them had made goofy-looking faces during the picture and it made Blane chuckle as he looked at it. This one had been taken not long after he'd come here the first time with them for his training.

Blane heard boot steps, a lot of them, coming towards him and put the locket back underneath his tunic and lit both of his entire arms on fire. He stood with arms loose at his sides as he waited for the guards to appear in his sight.

"I will come home…" Blane said softly to himself, "and never leave again when I do."

Blane felt a small tugging at the back of his mind but ignored it as the guards came into view. Blane clenched his fists hard, his nails growing into claws and cutting into his palm. His wings grew and ripped through the back of his tunic, effectively ruining it. He felt his horns grow from the sides of his head and the familiar itching feeling as his scales formed. He felt another appendage grow from his rear and rip through the back of his pants. His tail waved back and forth slowly as he watched the guards slow as they saw him standing in the corridor.

"What the hell is that thing?" one them whispered, Blane being able to hear it due to his enhanced hearing.

"Some kind of freak…" one of them whispered back.

"I'm no freak," Blane's voice boomed, startling the guards, "I am Blane, son of Rurik the human noble and Silena the graceful dragoness. I'm half-dragon, half-human, and both parts of my heritage burn with anger with the atrocities you've done. You…will…DIE!"

Blane roared and loosed a torrent of white flames from his open mouth and sent them at the guards. However, they never reached the guards as the same dark-cloaked man that had captured Blane appeared and absorbed the fire into his cloak. Blane ceased his wave of flame and scrutinized his new foe.

"Who are you, cloaked one?" Blane demanded, "And why do you interfere?"

"I am simply known as Shadow Man," the man said, his voice deep and dark, "I run this place and I will not allow you to release my gladiators nor char my employees to crisps."

"If you run this damn place then you are my enemy and that is not a good thing to be," Blane warned, his eyes narrowing and his pupils becoming slits.

"You do not scare _me_, half-dragon," Shadow Man sneered, "My powers do not just counteract yours, they also overpower them!"

Shadow Man launched a ball of darkness at Blane before he could do anything but try to block it with his wings. Blane felt the force of the attack collide with his wings and could feel the muscles in his wings struggling to hold the attack at bay. Blane ignited his wings with white fire, renewing his strength, but it still wasn't enough for him to push it away. He gritted his teeth as he felt the ball begin to push him backwards.

"Heh, I'll admit it, you're pretty strong," Blane said, smirking as he continued to struggle with Shadow Man's attack, "but I wonder how you're faring with attempting to keep such a powerful attack so powerful."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Shadow Man said, but Blane could hear the slight strain in his voice.

"You're not fooling anyone, Shadow Man," Blane chuckled as he was pushed back a few more inches, "I can hear the strain in your voice; it's draining you to keep this up. You're just a human with a small amount of Dark Magic, and though you make it strong, you do not know how to keep it from draining you drastically."

Just as he finished, Blane felt the power in the dark ball weaken enough and he reflected it back at Shadow Man. He was unable to dodge and the attack struck him directly in the chest and sent him flying backwards. The guards had fled by this time and there was nothing between him and stone wall behind him to cushion the blow. He struck the wall with enough force to crack it as well as his skull and spine. Shadow Man fell to the ground, dead, blood pooling under his lifeless form.

Blane walked over to him and pulled off his cloak to reveal a man who looked to be in about his mid-thirties. His clothes were all dark and in his right arm he limply held a dark leather book with a sigil in what appeared to be blood on the cover. Blane wrapped the cloak around himself, hiding his wings from view as he tucked them in, before he picked up the book. As he touched it he heard dark voices whispering hints of lost knowledge, power, and sinister plans. He ignored them and lit the book ablaze and listened as the voices shrieked in pain as the book burned before they fell silent. He let the remains of the burning book fall to the ground and noticed something in Shadow Man's other hand. He pried his fingers off of it and picked it up. It was a slip of paper with words in a language unknown to him. Knowing it could prove to be a clue, he stuck it in one of the pockets of his pants before turning away from the Shadow Man's dead corpse.

"So much suffering," Blane whispered, "but I'll help Jacy stop it by killing Merikh. But first, I have to get these people to the Survivors and safety."

He began to walk in the direction of where Aaron had gone when he heard something from behind him. He spun around, a sword of white flames forming in his hand, and saw that Shadow Man's head had moved and was now looking at him.

"You may have killed me, but there are others who will avenge me," he rasped, his voice low and almost incoherent, "Death's Embrace will find you and enshroud you in death and darkness."

"You can tell your damn friends that if they come after me then they'll meet the same fate as you," Blane frowned, the blazing sword in his hand pulsing as if it were a heartbeat.

"Oh, it is not you who they will go after," Shadow Man said, a sinister grin stretching his lips, "they will go after those closest to you."

"If they go after my family I swear I will annihilate all of them," Blane said threateningly, the burning sword in his hand growing larger in size and heat, "there won't even be any ashes to scatter."

"If you think they will be as easily beaten as I, you are sorely mistaken," Shadow Man said, "They will not go down easy and even then they will not go without killing many in the process. Good luck saving your family, _half-breed_."

Shadow Man slumped over, whatever life he had left leaving him and rendering him dead once more. Blane was still for a moment before he roared in fury and threw his sword at Shadow Man's lifeless body. The sword struck the body and, in a great flash of heat, light, and fire, incinerated the body and a good chunk of the wall.

"Stay safe, everyone…" Blane whispered, looking at the ground, "Please…"

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Kain: So, Blane _wasn't _captured by Merikh?

Wolf: Looks like it.

Kain: And he's got an entirely different evil organization after him and his family, that's gotta suck.

Wolf: Big time, but where the hell is Jacy?

Meanwhile…

Jacy: How the hell did I get on this desert island?


	3. Chapter 3: Matter of Trust

Kain: Trouble in Dragon Realms, and a Breakout in Jacy's!

Wolf: Exciting!

Jacy: Do you two have _any _idea how hard it is to swim from a desert island back to here?

Kain: Nope, and we don't care!

Wolf: On with the chapter!

Jacy: I just hope I can rescue Kera soon, otherwise I'll go mad!

Kain: You already are!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do however own my OCs and this story!

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Chapter 3: Matter of Trust

Talea awoke from her sleep when she had a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. She quickly ran to where Dex was sleeping to make sure he was still there. He was and Talea let out a sigh of relief before beginning to wonder where her feeling of alarm was coming from. She picked up Dex, being careful not to wake him, and placed him in the spot between her wings.

She was about to go back to her room and return to sleep when she heard a frantic knocking on her door. She quickly made her way over, knowing whoever it was had a big problem. She'd informed everyone of Blane's departure with Jacy so whoever was at the door had something to tell her, and by the sound of it, it was pretty important. She opened the door and was greeted by a panting Deryx.

"Deryx? What's the matter?" Talea asked, worried.

"We…received…a….warning," he wheezed, "To…hand over…you and Dex…or the city…will be…destroyed!"

"If you think you can just hand over my son and I you're sorely—" Talea growled, baring her fangs.

"No, no, no, no," Deryx said, recovering and holding his hands up in surrender, "I'm trying to get you and Dex out of here. The others are trying to convince the city not to, but things aren't going so well; they're not even listening to the Guardians!"

"They're not?" Talea echoed, her anger turning to surprise.

"No, the warning also said that _everyone _in the city will die as well," Deryx explained, "It didn't go over so well. I guess either people forgot that you helped _save _the world, or they're choosing not to remember."

"Do we know who sent this warning?" Talea questioned.

"A group calling themselves 'Death's Embrace,'" Deryx said, grimacing, "What's more is that they're humans with Dar Magic, and some powerful Magic it is."

"But I thought you were the only pure-blood human in Dragon Realms," Talea said, shocked.

"That's just it," Deryx said, "they're from Jacy's realm, but how they got here I don't know. And right now isn't the time for this anyway, I need to get you out of here."

"Alright," she said, nodding in understanding.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"People, please! We cannot give into these peoples' commands and give them Talea and Dex, it would make us no better than them!" Terrador shouted to the mob of elves, cheetahs, moles, and dragons.

"You'd rather us all die than just two?" someone in the crowd yelled, everyone in the crowd roaring their agreement.

"Those two happen to be the mate and child of the one who defeated Ragnarok!" Spyro bellowed.

"And to get anywhere near them, you have to go through us!" Cain agreed.

"It's over a thousand of us, and ten of you," someone in the crowd said, "You're mad!"

"Maybe, but the ten of us are much stronger than all of you," Nguyen said, watching the crowd with fury in his gaze.

"Indeed, if you wish to test your power against ours, then have at thee!" Cyril said, frost coming from his maw. Roars of anger and challenge came from the crowd, but were quickly silenced by Terrador's booming voice.

"Now hold on a moment," he said, "There is no need for us to fight each other, not when the real enemy is outside our walls!"

"How do we know they're still outside?" someone in the crowd demanded.

"For all we know, any of us could be on their side!" another agreed. Several people in the crowd began to roar and shout at one another, accusing others of being traitors.

"Stop it, all of you!" Arcaein shouted, causing everyone to be silent, "Can't you see what's happening? They're making us turn on one another, that way it'd be all the easier for them to take the city!"

"Indeed, we must retain our conviction to our fellow denizens of Warfang!" Volteer said, "The lack of it will cause our collapse, otherwise!"

"Volteer speaks the truth," Arlyn said, "Our friends and family are the only ones we can trust in these dark times and everyone here is either one or the other, if we are to survive we must count on them!"

"No one will die if we keep our heads and think!" Ixenra added, "So think of where you could be of use in the city and get there, otherwise get out of here!"

Most of the crowd hesitated, but after a burst of flame from Ixenra's maw they were quick to disperse and go to wherever they believed they were needed.

"We must go to the wall and make sure that nothing gets through," Terrador said.

"Indeed," Arcaein agreed, "but I want Spyro, Cynder, and Nguyen to go with Deryx to wherever he is taking Talea and Dextran. I fear that not everyone in the crowd accepted just leaving them be."

Everyone nodded in understanding before Spyro, Cynder, and Nguyen took flight and headed to Talea's home. Once there, they found that the two of them had left only moments before and saw the two of them flying away not too far in the distance. Deryx rode on Talea's back with Dex in his arms, and Spyro and the others caught up quickly and explained what had happened.

"I know where we can go," Cynder said, "it should be uninhabited, but easily defensible even with how little of us there are."

"Where exactly?" Deryx questioned.

"The fortress that I lived in when I was still under the Dark Master's control," Cynder said, shuddering as she remembered the feeling of the Dark Master corrupting her thoughts, "I just hope that it's still in good condition."

The group said no more on the matter and followed Spyro and Cynder, both of them knowing where the dark castle lay.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane stood in the armory as he attached his sword to the belt on his waist and placed his knife into the small sheath he'd found here in the armory and had attached it to his belt as well. Also inside the armory were the twenty gladiators that he and Aaron had freed. They were a blend of genders and ethnicities, though most were between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Aaron seemed to be the youngest gladiator there at only sixteen years old, but all of the gladiators seemed to hold him in high regards.

Blane had yet to change back into his human form so many people were gawking at the half-dragon as he waited for them to be ready. He felt their gazes on him like hot irons, but said nothing. Aaron watched him out of the corner of his eye, as if waiting for him to react to their stares.

"People are the same here as they were back in my realm," Blane sighed to himself, soft enough that no one else heard him, "At least here they aren't calling me names and trying to harm me."

It was a bit longer before everyone was ready to go, but when everyone was, Blane and Aaron took the lead and began to guide the group out of the armory and back through the corridor. The armory was at the back of the compound so there was a great distance they had to travel before they reached the exit at the front. Once outside the armory, Blane grabbed the guard that he'd bound and gagged after questioning him about where all the weapons were. He slung him over his shoulder like a potato sack before he began walking once more, figuring he'd have some use later on be it as a decoy or a future ally if he proved himself trustworthy.

As they walked, Blane felt himself grow tense because of the lack of resistance as they walked through the hallway towards the exit. He wasn't the only one as he heard several of the freed gladiators ready their guns, in preparation for the ambush they knew awaited them soon.

"Where are all the guards?" Aaron asked softly, speaking the question everyone was thinking.

"I don't know," Blane answered quietly, pulling his sword from its sheath with the arm he wasn't using to hold the captured guard over his shoulder, "and that worries me."

"You don't think they're planning an ambush for us, do you?" he asked, putting another question from everyone's minds to words.

"Most likely," Blane responded, his eyes scanning everywhere as they walked, "they outnumber us greatly, but a head-on attack would be foolish. They'd lose many, if not all, of their comrades before they'd take us all down."

Aaron remained silent after that, which Blane was grateful for; it was hard to concentrate on looking for hints of an ambush while answering questions. The feeling of trepidation he had in the pit of his stomach grew with every step he took, knowing that a trap could lay in wait in any room. Suddenly, he heard the sound of several guns loading and his eyes widened in realization.

"Everyone, get down!" he shouted just before he dived to the floor. Just after he did, a rain of bullets came from in front of them and took out a few of the gladiators before they could duck. The rest, however, were able to move quickly enough and made it to the floor without injury. Blane slid the guard off his shoulder and let him lay on his back before he waited for the guards to reload. When they were, he got to his feet and charged towards them. He felt bullets whiz by from behind him and hit several of the guards, but he didn't even flinch.

When he reached them, he slashed through numerous guards' chests and sent them to the ground in death. He pulled his knife out from its sheath and stabbed one of the guards in his temple with it before pulling it out and piercing another through the eye. When he pulled it out of that one, he stabbed through the guard's body and stabbing another through him.

When he pulled his blade out of both of them, all of the guards had been killed. Blane turned around and was relieved to see he hadn't lost any more of the gladiators other than the two or three that had been shot during the initial ambush. The entire fight had only been about five minutes, but to all of them it felt like an eternity.

Blane wiped the blood off of his knife and sword on one of the dead guard's bodies before sheathing both of them. He made his way back over to them when he noticed the bound guard was missing. To his surprise, he found the guard behind him with a pistol pointed right at his head.

"If any of you move, I'll kill your freak of a leader!" he threatened, making Blane's blood boil. Before he could react, though, there was a gunshot and he felt the guard slump to the ground, a bullet between his eyes. Blane looked at the crowd and saw Aaron holding a handgun, still pointing it forward and a bit of smoke coming from the barrel.

"Nice shot," Blane commented, "but I didn't need your help."

"Of course," Aaron responded, chuckling, "but from where I was standing you looked like you did. Sorry if I took your kill."

"Whatever," Blane said, turning around, "Let's get out of here and find the Survivors. I just hope I haven't lost any of my tracking ability."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"So, what do you have planned for them, Master?"

"Pain, suffering, loss, and _fear_, my loyal servant, after all, they are all my specialties."

"Fear, might I help with that one, Master?"

"Of course, it is _your _specialty as well."

"Thank you, Master."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: I'm going to go take a nap, don't disturb me.

Kain: Are you sure you want to leave me and Wolf _alone _while you sleep?

Jacy: Yes, because if anything is out of place you two are going to be in separate cages until I finish this series!

Wolf: But who knowswhen _that'll_ be?

Jacy: Then you better be careful!

By the way, some of the submitted OCs will show up in chapters pretty soon, send me a PM or review on which side you want your OC to be on and which realm they're in!


	4. Chapter 4: Expect the Unexpected

Been a while since I updated, but this chapter has some other people's OCs in it so, yeah. Not much to say really so, on with the chapter, I suppose. After the disclaimers, anyways.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimer: Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing, and Dax belongs to Alec the Dark Angel.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 4: Expect the Unexpected

Jacy followed Aingeru above the destroyed city, both of them looking down at the city with sorrow. They could see several groups of zombies roaming the ruined streets, rubble from the collapsing buildings sometimes falling down and onto the zombies.

Suddenly, a searing pain show through Jacy's body and made him lose control of his hoverboard. Noticing this, Aingeru flew back and steadied him as he began to recover. When he had, Aingeru let him go and Jacy rolled his right coat sleeve up to his elbow, revealing a green dragon tattoo-like image that with its head at his wrist and curled around his arm and past his elbow. It was glowing faintly, and seemed to be steaming, but Jacy could see several discolorations, almost like bruises, and red lines like cuts and slashes on it.

"I'll find you, Kera…" he said softly, fixing his sleeve, "And I'll make Merikh pay for every mark on you, I swear it."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kera scooted to the stone wall at the back of her holding cell. Her clothes were filthy and torn, revealing bruises the color of asphalt and cuts and slashes that all looked like they were in the first stages of infection. Her hair was loose and messy, grime covering it.

She was trained to withstand a great amount of physical pain, but emotional pain was something her teachers never paid attention to. Tears began to stream down her face and onto the cold, rock floor. She felt weak and helpless, and she knew that Jacy could feel her pain through their empathy link and it made her feel even worse.

She heard the massive steel door that was the entrance to this prison open and the click-clack of dragon claws on stone get closer and closer until the dragon making this noise came into view. He was an adult, maybe about twenty-six or twenty-seven by the looks of him. His scales were a dark blue while his plated underbelly was crimson, as were his wings. His eyes were a dark red and glinted in the half-light given off by the flickering lights.

He carried a young dragonet, who couldn't be any older than five or six, by her tail. He carried her over to the cell in front of Kera's and opened it before tossing the dragonet inside and closing it, the lock clicking into place when the door closed.

"He's turned you into a monster, brother," Kera said mournfully as the dragon turned to leave, causing him to pause.

He looked over at her with his red-eyed gaze and said, "There is no relation between you and I, prisoner."

"He's brainwashed you, Aiden," she said, her voice shaky from lack of use, "It's me, Ke-"

"My name is _Fear_, prisoner," the dragon sneered, beginning to walk away, "and I have no family."

Kera felt her tears continue to fall as she listened to Fear's fading footsteps and the closing of the huge door as he left. She knew it was her brother, but Merikh had done something to him and turned him into something he wasn't.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the whimpering of the dragonet and looked over at her. She began to stir, her eyes blinking open to reveal that while her left eye was sky blue, her right eye was gleaming silver. Kera couldn't see any horns on the youngling, nor could she see a tail-blade. The dragonet's scales glinted dull silver, while her underbelly and wings were white but were covered in a dreary grey. She lifted her head up and looked around, fear evident on her young face.

Kera pushed aside the pain from her screaming muscles and crawled to the bars of her cell and spoke softly so as not to scare her, "Hi, little one. My name's Kera, I'm a friend. What's your name?"

"Dax," the dragonet whimpered, looking over at Kera.

"That's a pretty name," Kera said, smiling kindly, "Are you okay, Dax?"

"I'm scared," she mumbled, "and sad."

"We'll be alright," Kera promised her, "and we'll get out of here, okay?"

Dax nodded before laying her head down on the floor. Kera leaned forward and laid her head against the cold, steel bars.

"Hurry, Jacy," Kera whispered, rubbing her right arm where a tattoo-like image of Jacy seemed to mirror her motion.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain walked through the deserted streets of Warfang. Most of the citizens had fled through the tunnels to the various cheetah villages in Avalar, the ones who stayed were either at the wall or guarding the temple.

He'd been sent out to make sure no one was holed up in their homes somewhere or somewhere where they'd be in danger, no one else able to check as they were too busy directing those who stayed.

'Not that we're safe anywhere else,' he thought to himself, 'If this group has the power to wipe out an entire city, then it's only a matter of time before we're overwhelmed.'

He sighed as he continued walking, listening for any sounds of movement that weren't his own. So far, he'd heard nothing and was about to head back when he heard the sounds of pots and pans hitting the floor emanating from a nearby house.

Cain quickly, but quietly, made his way over to the house and noticed the door was open slightly. He opened it the rest of the way and stepped inside, his eyes scanning the room for anything that seemed out of place. Seeing nothing, he walked into the next room and found himself in the kitchen.

He could see the pots and pans scattered all over the floor, as well as a cabinet door that was slightly ajar. Cain slowly made his way towards it, being careful not to step on any of the pots and pans on the floor. When he reached the cabinet, he opened it and saw an unexpected sight. Inside was a young hazel dragoness with five indigo horns, one on the top of her head and two on either side of her head. Her wings were a slightly darker shade of indigo while her tail tip and spikes were a mint green. Her brown eyes showed that she knew she'd been caught.

"Any particular reason you're hiding in a cabinet?" Cain asked her.

"All the children were being sent out to the cheetah villages," she said, "I didn't want to leave."

"C'mon," Cain said, stepping back so she could get out, "I'm taking you to the temple."

"You mean you're not going to send me to one of the cheetah villages?" she asked, surprised, as she crawled out.

"Sadly I can't because we've sealed off the tunnels," he answered, looking down at her because of the large difference in size, "What's your name?"

"Serenity, and you're Cain right?" she said, looking up at him, "The one who helped defeat Ragnarok?"

"Yeah," he said, "now c'mon, it's not safe-"

"Look out!" Serenity cut him off, causing Cain to turn around just to see a blast of fire headed right for them. He placed himself between Serenity and the fire before he opened his wings completely and shielded his body with them.

When the fire hit his wings, Cain gritted his teeth from the burning sensation it caused. Despite being a fire dragon, he could feel the fire singing his wings. And then, as suddenly as it had started, the fire stopped. He moved his wings slightly so he could see and saw a black cloaked figure standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

The figure had his left arm outstretched with his palm open while his right was down at his side, clutching a black book. His face was hidden in the shadow created by his hood, but Blane could see crimson-red eyes watching him and he growled in response.

"I _really _need a vacation," Cain said ironically.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Spyro, Cynder, Talea, and Nguyen all landed in the courtyard of the once-feared black citadel. After so many years, the crystals that grew all around it had started to overtake the courtyard, as well as parts of the castle itself. The ominous feel that the looming structure gave off had diminished, but still remained.

Deryx got off of Talea's back, carefully placing Dex back onto her back so as not to wake him, and looked around. He noticed the crystals were of varying sizes and pale blue, some of them seeming to shift slightly whenever he looked away.

Spyro, meanwhile, was checking the harness that Cynder was wearing. Attached to the harness, in the spot just between her wings, was a small basket where Annabelle was curled up, sleeping. After making sure that the harness was not straining anywhere, he brought his head up and nodded.

Spyro had grown in the five years that had passed, and was nearly the size of his father, Ignitus, now. His horns and tail-spade had gotten longer and sharper as well. His wings and plated underbelly had turned a deeper shade of gold while his wing membranes remained orange. He was muscled due to his continued training over the years, yet still gentle with what he saw as fragile.

Cynder had developed as well, though she was slightly smaller and slenderer than Spyro. Her horns had gotten longer and continued to curve while her tail-blade had gotten longer as well. Despite her willowy appearance, she was leanly muscled and just as strong as Spyro.

Nguyen stood a little ways away from the others, looking at the dark fortress that lay in front of them. He, too, had grown and was just a bit smaller than Blane when he was in his dragon form. His horns had grown out and curved down, while another horn had begun to grow from his chin like a beard.

"Are you sure the defenses will still work?" he asked, looking over at the others.

"They were designed to last hundreds of years of non-use," Cynder explained, "so unless someone decided to sabotage them, which I highly doubt, everything should still be in working order."

"Uh, guys, someone's coming out," Deryx said, gripping the hilt of his sword. The others turned to see the door opening and a large armored figure coming out. The armor was as black as the castle and purplish electricity connected the pieces of armor together. It held a dark sword in one gauntlet hand while a black shield was attached to the other.

"Oh no, someone activated the defenses!" Cynder exclaimed.

"The Electric King?" Spyro questioned, sounding confused, "Didn't I kill you already?"

The Electric King let out a dark, metallic laugh as he pointed his evil-looking sword at the group.

"Talea, Cynder, stay back!" Deryx shouted, pulling out his sword, "We'll handle this!"

"But-!" the two of them began to object but Spyro cut them off.

"Keep the children safe!" he yelled, his gaze on the Electric King.

"No fair…" Talea complained before she turned around and found herself fact-to-face with a creature that seemed to be made of the same type of crystal that was growing all around them. Behind it were several smaller versions of it.

"Gem…golems?" Cynder said, surprised.

"Looks like we get to fight after all," Talea said excitedly.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Well, stuff went down, conversations were had, new characters were introduced, and old characters were revamped. All in all, a good chapter, I suppose. To Alec and phoenix, if I got their personalities wrong, let me know and I'll adjust it and make it better. Till next time guys, I'm going to go bash my head into a wall now because I feel brain dead.


	5. Chapter 5: Fall

*Depressing songs blast loudly in the background.*

Kain: Why is he playing that music so loud?

Wolf: He did something and he's really depressed about it.

Kain: Should…should we go see if he's okay?

Wolf: I wouldn't, not when he's like this.

Kain: Well, let's get started then.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 5: Fall

"You've got to be kidding me," Jacy said. He and Aingeru stood outside of what appeared to be a supped-up mall. All the windows were boarded up but he could see muzzles of sniper rifles sticking out of some of the gaps. The glass doors had been replaced with large steel ones.

"The remaining Survivors refused to leave until you returned so we were forced to find a safe house that was usable and could house all of us," Aingeru explained, motioning towards the mall, "This is the best we could find."

"Malls were up with amusement parks on the list of places _not _to make a home base," Jacy said, looking the mall over, "How were all of you able to do this in so little time, anyways?"

Aingeru turned to look at Jacy, a look of surprise on his face, before saying, "You've been gone for ten days Jacy."

"Th-that's not possible!" he stammered, shocked, "The portals transport instantly!"

"I guess Merikh finally broke the Temporal Marked One and used him to slow your return as much as possible," Aingeru theorized, "But this isn't the place for a discussion, let's get inside."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane stepped through the exit of the compound and found that they were on some sort of island. He turned around and began to walk backwards and saw that the compound had been under the platform of the remains of a great statue. All that was left of it were the sandaled green feet, the rest having fallen into the water long ago.

Blane took his gaze away from the platform and back to the doorway where the freed gladiators walked out, some of them shielding their eyes from the sun. Aaron was one of the few that wasn't and he made his way over to where Blane stood.

He looked to where he'd been looking moments before and said, "That statue, or what's left of it anyway, used to be a symbol of peace, freedom, and _liberty_. Now it's just a relic of a past that no one can really remember."

"I can only imagine how magnificent it looked," Blane sighed, looking back up at it, "It would've been one of the few _good_ things about coming here for the second time."

"You've been here before?" Aaron asked, surprised.

"Spent five years training with Jacy and Kera after they saved my life," Blane responded, nodding in affirmative, "but they still managed to keep the whole 'Survivors' thing secret from me."

"They must've had their reasons," Aaron speculated, looking over at him, "but you can ask them why when we get back to the city, yeah?"

"Yeah," he agreed, nodding his head, "but first we need a boat, and those'll be down at the docks."

"Then let's get down there," Aaron said, grinning.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"I don't remember the Electric King being this strong!" Spyro shouted as he fired an Earth Missile at said foe only to see it get smashed against the Electric King's shield.

"Obviously someone decided to upgrade," Deryx said as he slashed at the King's helmet only for it to scrape off and barely leave a scratch.

"Less talking, more fighting!" Nguyen yelled before he launched an Ice Spike at the foe's arm, where it hit the purple electricity connecting the joints and severing the connection. The gauntlet hand that held the shield fell to the ground, lifeless, and the Electric King let out a roar of anger. He threw his sword at Nguyen and it sunk into his shoulder. He let loose a roar of agony as his right foreleg gave out under his weight and he collapsed.

"Nguyen!" Deryx shouted, looking over at his friend before glaring at the King, who was laughing maniacally. He muttered something incomprehensible, the scars on his palms glowing faintly, before the lifeless gauntlet began to float and flex its fingers before it grabbed the Electric King's helmet and lifted him off the ground before throwing him into the wall next to the door. The King fell out of the crater he'd made and onto the ground where he twitched for a moment or two before he stopped and the electricity keeping him together faded.

Afterwards, Deryx collapsed due to the drain of the magic and the gauntlet fell to the ground with a metallic clang. Spyro looked back and forth between him and Nguyen, unsure of who needed immediate help. Deryx rolled over onto his back before pointing at Nguyen.

"Help him first," he panted, "I'm in no danger."

Spyro nodded before he hurried over to where the blue dragon lay, bleeding heavily and struggling to remain conscious. Spyro reached him and saw that the sword was impaled nearly a third of the blade into his shoulder and the flesh around the wound was turning a sickly green color.

'Poison!' Spyro realized, shocked. He quickly shouted, "Cynder!"

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to attack me?" Cain said, eyes narrowing.

The figure remained silent for a moment before he spoke in a deep, emotionless voice, "I am not here to fight; merely to stall you until it is deemed no longer necessary."

"Stall me all you like, but the youngling leaves and you nor any of your 'Death's Embrace' buddies bother her, got it?" Cain responded.

"Very well," the man replied, "You have my word."

"I'm not going to leave you!" Serenity objected.

"You are," he ordered, glancing back at her fiercely, "Tell Arcaein and the Guardians that the enemy has breached the city. I'll hold him and any others that show up here as long as I can."

"But—" she tried to complain but Cain cut her off.

"Go!" he shouted furiously and she took off out the back door and flew towards the temple. Cain tuned back to face the cloaked man and smirked before saying, "Where were we?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Wolf: Rest in Peace, Nguyen.

Kain: Now I see why he's so depressed…

Wolf: Yeah…If only Kera was here, she could pull him out of this slump.

*Kain cracks his knuckles*

Kain: Then let's go get her back.


	6. Chapter 6: Leadership

Jacy: Where the hell are Kain and Wolf?

Jacy: Ah well, cue the disclaimers!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimer: Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing and Dax belongs to Alec the Dark Angel.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 6: Leadership

Kera was awakened by the sound of the large metal door being unlocked and opened once more. She heard footsteps come towards her and Dax's cells and tensed up, expecting anything. She stood up and waited for whoever was coming to come into view. When the person did, she was surprised.

It was a lanky, nerdy looking man who looked as if he was terrified just by being in the room. He looked to be in his early twenties with stubble coating his chin. His hair was a pale grey and his brown eyes shifted nervously behind black-rimmed glasses. He wore a dirty and ripped white dress shirt and a pair of filthy black slacks. He carried two metal trays, one in each hand, with some kind of gruel on them. He slid the trays into each of their cells and then turned to leave, but Kera was quicker and grabbed him through the bars. She covered his mouth so he couldn't scream and used her other arm to get him in a head lock.

"Yell and I'll kill you, understand?" she whispered menacingly into his ear. He nodded earnestly and Kera took her hand off his mouth, but kept her other arm around his neck.

He took a gasp of air before timidly saying, "Wh-what are you going to do with me?"

"If you answer all my questions honestly, I'll let you go. If you don't, well, I think you can piece that one together," she said, feeling bad when she felt and heard him swallow nervously but quickly pushing it aside, "Where are we?"

"W-we're underground somewhere, I don't know where exactly," he said fearfully.

Kera acted more irritated than she actually was by growling softly before saying, "What does Merikh have planned for the hatchling and I?"

"Y-you're bait to lure Jacy here, h-he didn't tell me why he is keeping the other one," he spoke apprehensively.

"You're saying 'I don't know,' quite a lot, say it again and I'll be eating you instead of that slop you brought," she growled, and he whimpered in response, "Where are the keys to the cells?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy sat back in the large blue recliner he was sitting in, lost in thought. His thoughts constantly shifted between how Blane was faring, worrying and thinking of a way to rescue Kera, and to how the Temporal Marked One managed to slow down his portal travel and if he still was.

As he thought, a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties and bared a striking resemblance to Kera, but she had flaming orange hair and light-green eyes, made her way towards him. She wore a black shirt with the image of a tribal flame in the middle of it and a pair of slim-fitting blue jeans. Her bare arms had a lacery of pale white scars that resembled claw marks, bites, and scratches, and attached to her thigh was a holster that held an M9 pistol. Clipped to the black belt she wore were several extra magazines for said firearm.

When she was standing in front of him with her arms crossed, a scowl on her face, he noticed her and spoke calmly, "Fera?"

"Jacy, _please _don't tell me that you went to wherever you were for those ten days, and got my little sister captured by that psychopath Merikh, for nothing." She said disdainfully. Jacy stood up slowly before looking down at her as he was a few inches taller than her, but he was not naïve enough to think he intimidated her.

"I didn't plan on being gone for so long, or Kera getting captured," he said, meeting her fierce glare with one of his own, "but I didn't come back empty-handed."

"Then where is this so-called 'hero' that you were so hell-bent on finding, then?" she questioned harshly.

"He was taken by a member of Death's Embrace, likely the one that runs the gladiatorial ring over on Liberty Island," Jacy answered coldly, his eyes narrowing.

"So that's just _another _added to the list of people we have to rescue!" Fera said angrily, "Some 'hero' he turned out to be."

"If I know Blane, which I _do_, then he's already escaped with the gladiators and is heading back to the city as we speak," he told her.

"Why are you so damn confident about this guy?" she demanded, "How do you know he isn't dead somewhere?"

"Because I brought him into existence!" Jacy shouted, surprising Fera as he finally snapped, "When I was a kid, before I knew about my abilities, I wrote him and several entire _worlds _into reality. In the original story, I wrote that he died and _stayed _that way. When I learned about my abilities, I realized what I had done. Unfortunately, when I finally had the time to try to fix my mistake, I was too weak to travel myself so I sent Kera instead. But her ability to revive the dead was useless as what I had written wasn't what happened. Instead of him getting killed by Ragnarok, the main enemy, and his brother killing Ragnarok in vengeance, he died sacrificing himself to save his love. I knew I had to go there, despite the danger of overusing my powers, and bring him back. I managed to do it and I brought him back with Kera and I so we could train him. The reason why Kera and I were never with the Survivors at the same time up until a week ago was because one of us was training him while the other was with the Survivors. In those five years, I didn't just see the limits of his physical and mental strength; I saw determination that could not be de-railed. I have faith in him as a warrior, as a leader, and as a friend."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Don't let your guard down for a single second!" Blane told the gladiators as the boat they'd found docked into the port, "Because I can assure you that it'll be the last mistake you'll ever make! Now move!"

All the gladiators nodded in understanding before they jumped off the boat and formed a defensive perimeter around the boat. Aaron and Blane stepped off and the gladiators formed a wall in front of them and the all began to walk forward.

"Wow, in the three hours it took to find a decent enough port you've turned them into a functioning unit," Aaron said, impressed, not taking his eyes off the area in front of them.

"A common enemy unites even the strongest of foes," Blane responded, his eyes scanning for any kind of hint of where to go, "The common enemy here being dying as a zombie."

Aaron nodded in agreement and the group walked in relative silence for a while after that. The only sounds that broke it were their footsteps, breathing, and occasional gunshot fired into the skull of a zombie. The area was mostly vacant, much to everyone's surprise, and it made all of them uneasy.

Before Blane could comment on this matter, however, one of the gladiators pointed to the sky and shouted, "Dragons!"

All of them looked up and, indeed, there were two dragons flying in the air above them. All of them, except Blane and Aaron, started shouting and waving their arms and rifles above their heads in an attempt to get the dragons' attention. It worked and the two dragons shifted their direction and began to fly towards them.

As the two got closer, they were able to make out the dragons' colors. One of them was dark-blue with a crimson underbelly and wings, while the other was completely devoid of color. However, Blane's element and dragon heritage allowed him to see the colorless dragon's pallid eyes and the bites and scratches covering its body and the black aura surrounding the blue one's head.

"Take cover!" he shouted a moment too late. The pale one landed on two of the gladiators, crushing them, before snapping up a third with its maw. The blue one let loose a stream of electricity from its mouth as it hovered just above the ground, striking four gladiators and causing them to explode and send gore flying everywhere.

Acting quickly, Blane charged at the blue dragon and jumped at him. Mid-jump, he shifted into his dragon form and collided with the blue one. The impact knocked both of them to the ground and they began to claw and bite at each other as they rolled.

The gladiators, meanwhile, had recovered and begun firing at what they realized was a _zombie_ dragon. Aaron, too, fired at it but saw every bullet shot at it just bounce of its scaled hide. He saw it begin to rush at him and he felt the middle of his back begin to burn and itch. He stood still as the decaying beast got closer and closer and, moving faster than he ever had, he jumped over its open its open maw just as it was about to clamp down onto him. It let out a roar of surprise as its jaws closed onto nothing. Before it had time to ponder where its prey had gone, Aaron shoved the barrel of his gun into the monster's eye and pulled the trigger. Round after round entered the beast's skull, piercing its brain and causing its unnatural life to come to a close. As its lifeless corpse fell to the ground, Aaron jumped off its back and landed cleanly on his feet.

Meanwhile, Blane faced off against Fear. The two dragons fought with tooth and claw, an unspoken agreement between the two of them that they'd fight like the dragons of old, with honor and without the use of their elemental abilities.

At the moment, the two were circling one another as they stepped in unison. Both of them bled from the deep scratches, horrid bites, and ferocious gashes covering their bodies, but neither showed any sign of the obvious pain their wounds caused.

"You fight well for someone with no control of their own mind," Blane complimented mockingly as he chuckled.

"My master spared my life and gave me power that I had only dreamed of," Fear snarled defensively, "All he asked for was that I serve him and I gladly accepted."

"Your sister thinks you're dead, Aidan," Blane told him, his tone going soft and sad, "Come with us, ple—"

"I HAVE NO FAMILY!" Fear roared before he ran at Blane. Seeing this coming, Blane side-stepped and slammed into Fear's side as he went by. The two of them clawed and bit each other as they rolled until Blane managed to pin Fear down on his stomach. He struggled for a moment, but stopped when Blane put one of his paws on top of his head.

"What are you going to do, Blane?" he heard a familiar voice say. He glanced over to where the voice came from and saw his father, Rurik, standing there. He looked exactly as Blane remembered him; his sandy blonde hair long, a tan tunic over his chest and a pair of green breeches covering his legs, his chin covered in stubble, his sword attached to the belt around his waist, and a kind look in his eye.

"I'm going to kill him," Blane spoke softly, looking down at Fear, "Like he's killed so many others."

"You'll kill your friend's brother?" Rurik questioned him, walking over and looking up at his son's draconic face.

"The Aidan Kera described was a kind, compassionate, and _good_ person," Blane defended, looking over at his father, "This isn't him, not anymore."

"Not on the outside," Rurik said, looking at Fear who glared back him, "but inside, the Aidan that Kera told you about is trapped and fighting to get out. _You _can help him get _out_, Blane."

"The last time I went into somebody's head I did it by accident and I found myself on a battlefield where I had to fight a monster to set my brother free," he said, looking down at Fear once more, "Who knows what I'll face if I go into his head?"

"Whatever is waiting, my son, you and I will face it together," he told him, placing his hand against Blane's side.

"Thank you, father," Blane said softly, closing his eyes and feeling the familiar feeling of being tugged through a very tiny tube.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"You…" Spyro said, looking into the face of someone he thought was gone for good, "This is your fault!"

Spyro ran at the newcomer, who merely stood there. The newcomer shared similarities with Spyro, such as their purple scales and golden underbellies, but there were differences as well. The newcomer's underbelly was a dirty gold color, had several spines on his shoulders and going down his back of the same color, four reddish-gold horns, and sorrowful blue eyes.

Spyro collided with him and the two of them rolled down the stairs from the doorway. They landed with Spyro pinning the other dragon inches from where the others watched in shock around Nguyen's body.

Spyro placed his paw against the dragon's throat and said, "You ruined the lives of so many, ended the lives of so many more, and now you're the cause of my friend's death. It's time for you to pay for your crimes, Malefor!"

"You're…right," Malefor choked out, looking up at Spyro with sadness, "My death…is well-deserved."

"And I'll gladly give it to you," Spyro growled through gritted teeth. He prepared to blast Malefor with a flame that would turn him to ash, Malefor closing his eyes and bracing himself for the end. However, Cynder spoke out before Spyro could do it.

"Spyro, don't!" she said, causing Spyro to pause, "He's not the Dark Master anymore; one look at his eyes _proves _that. The Dark Master wouldn't just give up and die without a fight, this is the _real _Malefor."

"Real or not, it's his fault Nguyen is dead!" Spyro said, distressed, as he looked at her over his shoulder, "Did you forget what he made you do, Cynder?"

"I remember what the _Dark Master _made me do, Spyro, this dragon has done nothing to me," she said, her green eyes locking onto his purple ones, "And Nguyen wouldn't want you to become a killer over him."

Spyro was silent for a moment, his eyes shut tight, before he let loose the blast of fire at the sky. The fire went nearly fifty feet high, but all of them could feel the heat coming off it as if it was heading at them rather than the sky. After a moment, he ceased the fire and looked down at Malefor, his eyes now open.

"You better thank her when I let you up," he said, the fire in his eyes nearly scorching Malefor as the flames would have, "because it's _her _that forgives you and her that convinced me to."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kera ran through the facility, Dax still asleep as Kera held her in place on her back, and the nerdy-looking man in front of her. Kera convinced the man, whose name she'd learned was Nathan, to help them and escape with them. He'd been captured as well, but when and how he had been he refused to say.

"How much further?" she asked as they turned a corner and found themselves in yet another hallway filled with doors.

"Through that doorway is our way out," Nathan said, pointing to the door at the end of the hallway. Suddenly, the door flew off its hinges and towards them. Kera grabbed Nathan and both of them hit the ground as the door sailed over their heads and smashed against the back wall.

"Did you really think Master Merikh didn't anticipate an escape attempt?" a man said as he strode through the doorway. He walked towards them, a confident gait in his step. Kera could tell the man was not human by the way his red eyes glowed maliciously.

Suddenly, someone tapped the man on the shoulder. He spun around only to have a fist collide with the side of his face. His body crumpled to the ground in a heap and two new figures walked over his unconscious form. One of them looked familiar, but his black hair, red eyes, and dark clothing were not. The other was a dark grey wolf with amber eyes and a crescent scar going over his right eye. Both of them had faded marks on their left arms, on the wolf's foreleg and burned onto the sleeve of the familiar-looking man's dark camouflage jacket.

"Well, you ready to leave, princess?" the man asked teasingly as he helped Kera to her feet. The wolf assisted Nathan, though he seemed to think the wolf was trying to eat him.

"It can't be…Kain? Wolf?" Kera asked, looking at the man and wolf in shock.

"In the flesh," Kain answered, grinning, "Jacy's a bit preoccupied at the moment, so we decided to do him a favor and rescue his girl."

"And it's a good thing we showed up when we did," Wolf commented, surprising Nathan and causing him to jump, "Otherwise that changeling would've gotten you."

"I had it handled," she huffed defensively, glaring at them both.

"The tough girl act doesn't work with us, princess," Kain said disapprovingly, "We've seen your true self, the soft side only known to your family…and Jacy."

"That doesn't mean I can't handle myself," she said indignantly.

"Look, we can argue about this later," Wolf said, "But first we need to get out of here because it's only a matter of time before Merikh himself comes to see what's going on."

"Kera?" Dax's soft voice asked sleepily as Kera felt her begin to stir on her back, "What's going on?"

Kera looked back at Dax, who was yawning cutely, and smiled, saying, "We're being rescued, sweetheart."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain jumped and flew through the roof of the building, creating a large hole, to dodge another blast of fire launched by the cloaked man. He flapped his wings to hover in the air and watched as the man walked over to the hole he'd made. When he was standing underneath it, the cloaked man began to float upwards until he was level in the air with Cain and facing him a little ways away.

"Why do you want Talea and Dextran?" Cain questioned.

"The half-breed, Blane, murdered one of our order," the man said curtly, "So we've come to take the things he cares about most, starting with his family."

"You realize you'll meet resistance every step of the way, right?" Cain pointed out.

"We do," the cloaked man said as several other cloaked figures appeared at his sides, "But that's why we all came."

"A challenge," Cain commented, smirking, "I was worried this would be easy."

"Glad we could pleasure you before you died," one of the new figures said sarcastically in a feminine voice.

"Make no mistake; I don't need you to pleasure me," he said mockingly, "No matter how much you want to."

"In your _dreams_, dragon," the same figure scoffed.

"More like nightmares," he countered, chuckling.

"Why you—!" the cloaked woman began to say, but the cloaked man Cain was fighting previously cut her off.

"That's enough, Elana!" he said, "We are here to _exterminate _the locals, not _argue _with them!"

"Sorry Master Ligun," the woman said miserably.

"Aww, don't punish the girl because I'm antagonizing her," Cain said with mock sorrow.

"Shut up!" the woman shouted as her hand shot up and launched a wave of ice in his direction. Cain quickly reacted by firing a blast of flame to block the ice. After the remnants of the wave passed him, he grinned again.

"That's quite the cold snap you've got there," Cain complimented sarcastically, "but my fire cannot be put out."

"That's where you're wrong!" Elana shouted, ice daggers forming in her hands before she sped towards him.

"Elana, don't!" Ligun tried to warn her, but it was in vain. Cain dodged her attack and retaliated by head-butting her, careful of his sharp horns, and knocked her unconscious. He grabbed her by her cloak before she could fall, her daggers slipping from her hands and falling to the ground below, and put her onto his back before turning to the others.

"Follow me and she dies," Cain told them, looking at them with narrowed eyes.

"Every Death's Hand member welcomes death, even their own," Ligun said uncaringly, "Elana was aware of this fact, as is every member of our order, but she was told that her emotions would be her downfall. It seems this is true."

"It was worth a shot," Cain sighed before he let out a huge blast of fire at the cloaked figures. Ligun, however, neutralized it with his own and they cancelled each other out. When the flames dissipated, though, Cain was nowhere to be seen.

"Spread out and find him!" Ligun ordered, "He can't have gotten far and High Priestess Mara wants him away from the temple here until she is able to summon her generals!"

The other cloaked ones did as they were told and took off in separate directions. Ligun, however, remained in the same spot. His hood slightly hid the fact that he was looking around. He heard something behind him and turned around just in time to see Cain impale him in the gut with his horns.

Blood began to drip down his horns fall to the ground below. Ligun gasped for air as he weakly grabbed onto Cain's horns. His hood fell back to reveal a pale face with short blonde hair. His red eyes faded to a pale blue, surprising Cain.

"Keep Elana safe," Ligun whispered softly before he pulled himself off Cain's horns and fell to the ground below. He watched as Ligun's body erupted into black flames the moment he hit the ground before he quickly took off towards the temple, knowing the fire would draw the other cloaked people to it like moths.

As he flew, he spoke as if Ligun could still hear him, "I won't allow anyone to harm her."

As he flew, the wind caused Elana's hood to fall back, revealing her face. Her skin was pale, like Ligun's, and her long brown hair whipped about in the wind. She stirred for a moment, her eyes opening slightly to reveal violet-colored irises. They closed once again as she slipped back into unconsciousness.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: Well, that was certainly long and exciting. Remember to Review, 'cause it makes me happy and if I'm happy I update!


	7. Chapter 7: Demons of the Past

Jacy: I swear I'm gonna get those two…

Sorry for taking so long to update, but I had to think about how to do this chapter and I hope I made up for it by the length. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimer: Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing and Dax belongs to Alec the Dark Angel.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 7: Demons of the Past

Blane opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in a dark cave. Torches hung on the walls, granting light but an eerie feeling as well. The flames cast shadows on the stone walls that only added to the foreboding feeling.

Blane looked over to his side to see Rurik grabbing a torch off the wall. With his other hand he grabbed the hilt of his sword and unsheathed it. The shining metal gleamed in the torchlight, giving the blade an ethereal look.

"Let's move," Rurik said, holding the torch out in front of him as he began to walk forward. Blane followed closely behind him and the two of them felt the adrenaline pumping through their bodies, putting them on edge.

It was because of this that they jumped when they heard the sounds of someone breathing and chains rattling. Rurik gripped the handle of his sword tighter and Blane readied his element to be launched when he was ready, but neither of them slowed as they got closer and closer to the noises. When they saw the source of them, they were shocked into stopping.

Chained to a wall a little ways ahead of them was an adult dragon. He had the same appearance as Fear, though this dragon had several more wounds than him. The other difference was his eyes; while Fear had crimson red eyes, this dragon was watching them with electric blue ones. He looked lethargic and frail, the life gone from his eyes.

He lifted his head off the ground, allowing them to see the shackle around his neck that chained him to the wall, and spoke weakly, "Another hallucination to break me further?"

"No, Aidan, we're real and we're here to help you," Blane said kindly, taking a step closer to the feeble dragon.

Aidan just shook his head slowly and sighed, "They always say that…"

"But you don't know who we are," Rurik pointed out as he and Blane reached him and knelt down, "Why would you hallucinate strangers that wanted to help you instead of friends or family?"

Aidan hesitated in answering and Rurik used this time to bring his blade down onto the excess chain that was lying on the stone floor. The chain shattered at the impact point, freeing Aidan who looked at the broken restraint in shock.

"H-how…?" He spoke, stunned, not looking away from the shattered chain.

"I told you," Blane said, he and Rurik standing back up, "We're here to help you, and that involves getting you free so you can fight the thing controlling your mind and body."

"Thing? Now that's not very nice…" said a childish voice from deeper in the cave, feigning hurt.

"That voice…" Rurik said, looking into the blackness of the cave in front of them with a look of disbelief, "It can't be…"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain flew almost silently; his eyes locked onto the sight in front him. The temple in the center of the city was giving off a foreboding black light, the glow pulsating as if it was alive. He could hear the sounds of a battle going on and immediately picked up the speed, realizing Serenity was in there somewhere.

He arrived there in moments and touched down in the courtyard. The battle seemed to have moved elsewhere, but the evidence of one was obvious. There were scorch marks everywhere, chucks of the building and ground were missing, water dripped from the trees and the overhang of the temple, and ice spikes were stuck in trees and the walls of the temple.

"Damn it," Cain cursed, looking around at all the carnage as he walked towards the entrance of the temple, "They did manage to get past the wall, but how? We reinforced it against any means of getting past it!"

"But only while the sentries on the wall were _alive_," responded a new voice from behind him. Cain spun around to see another cloaked, Death's Embrace member leaning against one of the trees that did not get hit by an ice spike. Unlike the ones he'd seen previously, this one had their hood down and Cain easily recognized this one as a woman. Her black hair was tied back in a ponytail and her eyes were a glistening crimson.

"You bastards killed them?" Cain roared in fury, feeling the fire at the back of his throat screaming to be let out.

"Most of them, yes," the woman answered, grinning maliciously, "A few of them ran, but we will find them soon enough."

Faces began to pass by Cain's mind's eye, faces belonging to those that Cain had seen go to guard the wall, some of which he'd convinced to do so. He felt rage begin to cloud his rational thoughts, rage that he hadn't felt since he thought his son had tried to perform the Vredranx Ritual after learning about it from a group of nomads and failed.

Cain began to let loose the fire from his maw, but before he could, vines shot out of the ground and wrapped his jaw shut as well as bound his legs and wings in place. His eyes zoned in on the woman whose hand had moved, now pointing in his direction with her palm facing up with her fingers curled upward as well. Cain growled in frustration as he was unable to shout the profanities he wanted to.

"Aww, what's the matter?" the woman asked with a look of mock concern as she walked over to him, "Upset because you can't burn little ol' Lilia to a crisp?"

Cain was only able to growl and glare at her in return. She rubbed her hand against his scaled cheek almost lovingly, but all it did was infuriate him more. He jerked forward, straining against the bonds in a futile attempt to break free, to intimidate her. It was pointless as she didn't move nor even change her mocking expression.

"Sorry big guy, but these vines have held back bigger and stronger things than you," Lilia said sweetly, but hardly hiding the contempt behind it, "You're stuck until I decide to let you go."

"Then you better decide to now," said a new, yet familiar voice. Cain was unable to look to where the voice came from, but recognized it as his son's, Athkor's. Lilia, however, was able to and she looked over to where Athkor stood at the bottom of the steps. His red scales glinted in the light given off by the setting sun, while Lilia regarded him with an innocent look.

"Aww, how sweet," she said with a false tone of sincerity, "The prodigal son coming to the rescue of his arrogant father. Surely you don't share that trait and think you can defeat me all by your lonesome?"

"I don't think I can beat you, I _know _I can," Athkor said, "And I didn't come alone, either. If you looked behind you, you'd see that."

Lilia turned around to see Fian and Hunter with their bows pointed at her with arrows nocked and ready to fire, a midnight-blue dragon that Cain recognized as the one that helped Deryx so long ago, and a black-and-silver robed man with piercing blue eyes and silverish-grey hair that Cain recognized as Deryx's magic instructor.

"You think you and your friends scare me?" Lilia asked disdainfully, "I am a member of Death's Embrace; fear has no hold over me."

"You see," Athkor said, taking a step forward as both of his eyes turned completely crimson with no other color showing, "That's where you're wrong."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy stood in a furniture store that had been turned into a makeshift planning room with the other surviving leaders of the Survivors. The council of sorts used to have fifteen members, but now there were only seven left alive, only six of whom were present. The seventh member was Kera, and Jacy was once more reminded of her obvious absence.

The rest of the 'council' consisted of himself, Fera, Aingeru, the Elemental Marked One whose name was Marie, a shape-shifter named Acelan, and a grizzled war veteran who everyone called Smoke.

Marie was a year younger than Jacy with long blonde hair tied into a ponytail, deep brown eyes, and stood at about 5'7". She wore a blue t-shirt with a silver 'E' over her left breast, a pair of hip-hugging black pants, and a pair of grey tennis shoes. Strapped to each of her thighs were holsters that held a Mac-11 in each.

Acelan refused to tell anyone how old he was, but he appeared to be in his late twenties with short black hair and blue eyes. His skin was a pale blue color and he was about 5'11" tall. He wore a skin-tight, black leather suit that clung to his skin and outlined his muscles as if he were shirtless.

Smoke was somewhere in his late forties or his early fifties and gave off an air of cynicism. He wore an urban camouflage uniform that was a mixture of grey, black, and white splotches, a pair of black combat boots, and had the strap that was attached to a Commando Assault Rifle over his right shoulder. He had buzzed down grey hair under a grey army cap and calculating brown eyes.

Jacy and Aingeru listened as Fera and Smoke squabbled over what to do now that Jacy had returned, while Marie and Acelan found the ceiling very interesting.

"The people wanted to stay in the city until Jacy returned, so we complied against our better judgment," Smoke said angrily, "He's back, so we should get the hell out of here!"

"Absolutely not!" Fera shouted, slamming her palms down onto the wooden table they all stood around, "My sister, who is also a member of this council, knew we were in this city last. It'll be the first place she looks when she escapes!"

"That's _if _she escapes," Smoke argued, crossing his arms, "How do we even know she's still alive, anyway?"

"Because Jacy would be a blubbering mess if she wasn't!" she told him, but after the skeptical look he gave her added, "Show him your right arm, Jacy."

"I don't think—" Jacy began slowly, holding up his arms in defense. He wasn't at all surprised that Fera knew of the empathic link he and Kera shared, but that didn't mean he wanted anyone else to know.

Fera, however, didn't share this reluctance as she cut him off, "I don't care what you think! Show him!"

Deciding it best not to argue, Jacy pulled up his sleeve to reveal the green dragon tattoo-like image that curled from just below his wrist all the way up to his shoulder. The image had changed very little since Jacy had looked at it earlier, but it had since cooled and no steam came off it.

"This is the physical manifestation of the empathic link Jacy and Kera share," Fera explained to the old soldier, "It allows them to feel what the other does, so if Kera was dead then Jacy wouldn't be any use to anyone as he'd pretty much be the same."

"Why would something like that even be _used_?" Smoke demanded, "It sounds like a hindrance than an advantage!"

"Because—" she began but Jacy cut her off.

"Because it allows us to be connected to the one we care about more than life itself on the most intimate of levels," he said irately, glaring at Smoke as he fixed his sleeve, "Making us stronger and closer than we'd ever be without it."

"It also gives you a weakness that your enemies, specifically _Merikh_, can exploit," Smoke countered, glaring back at him.

"Maybe so, but he has yet to use it and that means he either doesn't know of it, which I doubt, or he _won't _use it," Jacy said, trying his hardest to stay calm, "Merikh isn't one to hold onto an advantages, he either uses it or he doesn't."

"And you know this how?" Acelan spoke cautiously, his voice carefully neutral.

"When Kera and I fought Merikh the first time, we brought a group to deal with his underlings, one of whom was a mind-reader," he responded, glad it wasn't Smoke who had asked as it was still a tender topic for everyone who had been there, "She looked into his mind and was able to tell us what kind of person he was before he killed her."

"Hanna…" Marie murmured softly, remembering the gruesome sight of the poor girl being blown to pieces by Merikh's ability of Destruction. She rubbed her arms as she shivered and began to cry at the memory and Acelan wrapped her in a comforting hug.

"What do you suggest we do, Jacy?" Aingeru asked, looking over at the Creation Marked one with a raised brow.

"I suggest we have the Survivors remain here," he said slowly, "While I go get Kera back from Merikh."

"No!" Marie shouted, pulling away from Acelan as her hands ignited with blue flames, a normal occurrence when she was angry about something.

"Hell no!" Acelan agreed.

"Not happening!" Fera yelled, glaring at Jacy.

"That's suicide!" Smoke added.

"I told you they wouldn't let you," Aingeru commented, chuckling at their simultaneous responses.

"Look, if I go alone then I'll be able to fight him one-on-one," Jacy tried to explain, but Fera didn't listen.

"Merikh doesn't fight fair, you should know that better than anyone," she told him, jabbing his chest with her finger, "I want my sister back too, but this isn't the way to rescue her!"

"We may not have to," Aingeru said, causing everyone to look at him in confusion, "Does your mind seem a bit…quieter, Jacy?"

"Well, now that you mention it…" he trailed off as realization set in, "Those tricky bastards…"

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Alcatraz…" Kera whispered, looking out from the island she and the others were on to the city of San Francisco, "Why did it have to be Alcatraz?"

"What's so bad about Alcatraz?" Kain questioned, looking over at her, "Besides it being a former prison that used to house some of the worst criminals ever, I mean."

"This island was a prison long before ay buildings were here," she said, shifting back and forth on her feet uncomfortably, "An entire _race _of monsters were imprisoned here, creatures so foul that their very _name _was wiped from history. They are only known as the Forgotten Ones now, but it is entirely false. Everyone who has ever had a nightmare knows them, and _fears _them. Every creature fears the dark, they're the reason why."

"It's not like they survived being imprisoned here for so long, right?" Nathan asked nervously, looking at Kera for reassurance. He was disappointed, however.

"The charms and enchantments placed here made it the _perfect _prison for these creatures," Kera spoke reluctantly, "They can't even escape by dying. No, unfortunately, they are very much alive."

Nathan swallowed fearfully while Dax whimpered softly and squirmed in Kera's arms.

"Well, let's get out of here before they show up," Wolf said, shaking himself.

"They already have," Kera said, turning around. The others did as well and nearly screamed at the sight they saw. Standing there were hundreds of grey-skinned creatures that looked humanoid in shape. They looked to be only three feet tall, but it was hard to tell as they were all crouching. Their arms and fingers were long, tipped with sharp, pointy claws. They had five toes, but they resembled their fingers and looked like they were used for climbing. Their bodies were completely void of any hair, and had no distinctive genders despite them being nude. They had no noses, only snake-like nostrils, and their eyes were soulless black. They had spikes growing from their backs and shoulders that were colored sickly green.

"Perfect," Kain said sarcastically as a pitch black sword with a red guard and hilt formed in his hand, "Absolutely _fucking _perfect."

"Lady Luck doesn't seem to be on our side today," Wolf commented as a pair of silver blades attached to a brace that held them at his sides appeared on his back.

"You can't fight them!" Kera exclaimed, "If they even brush against you, it could put you in a nightmare you might never wake up from!"

"Better us than you, princess," Kain responded, holding his sword lazily in his right hand, "Jacy will be fine if something happens to us, but if something happens to _you _thenhe's useless."

"I'm not going to let you two kill yourselves to protect me!" she protested indignantly.

"You don't get a choice in the matter," Wolf told her dismissively, "We came here to rescue _you_. If it costs us our lives to do so, so be it."

"Just get those two out of here," Kain said, "If we're still alive, we'll meet you at the docks. If we're not there by first light, then consider us lost and get back to the Survivors, they should still be in New York City in one of the malls."

"But—" she tried to object but Wolf cut her off.

"Just go!" he yelled, his blades shooting out as he charged towards the horde of monsters with Kain close behind. The monsters ran at them as well and it wasn't long before they had the two completely surrounded.

"Hold her for a moment," Kera said softly, handing Dax over to Nathan.

"Buh, wha—?" he stammered, surprised, as he took the young dragonet and held her awkwardly. He was shocked even more as he watched the green-haired woman in front of him morph into a slim, green dragoness right before his eyes.

"You're a dragon too!" Dax said excitedly, squirming in Nathan's grip to try to get free.

"No way…" Nathan breathed quietly, amazed.

"There'll be time to be awed later," Kera said dismissively, motioning with her head, "Now get on!"

Nathan nodded and hurried over, helping Dax up before climbing up himself. He sat just behind Kera's neck with Dax in the small gap between him and her neck.

"Hold on tight!" she told them before she leaped into the air and took flight. Nathan let out a yell and grabbed onto her neck as she did, effectively sandwiching Dax between them but keeping her from falling off.

Kain saw them leave out of the corner of his eye and a smirk slowly grew on his face before he said, "I think it's time we make our exit as well, wouldn't you say my canine comrade?"

"I thought I told you not to call me that," Wolf grumbled, fending off the claws of several of the grey-skinned monsters with his blades.

"Oh lighten up you big fur ball!" Kain teased as he roundhouse kicked one of the creatures and sent it flying back into several more, "Life only lasts for so long, y'know?"

There was no response and Kain realized that his blade colliding with the monsters' claws was the only sound. He turned around and saw a group of them clustered around something with Wolf nowhere in sight.

Realizing what was happening, he ran over to them as he shouted, "Wolf!"

The spiked beasts turned to look at him just as he dropkicked two of them in the face and back flipped onto his feet. His sword then shifted into a large black shield covered in scratches and knocked the rest of them out of the way until he reached Wolf. One of them had touched him and left a black handprint on his flank as well as put him into a nightmarish sleep. He twitched and shifted in his slumber as he endured the most horrific nightmare he'd ever had. The brace that had held his blades had been ripped off and strewn everywhere.

Kain threw his shield at a group of Forgotten Ones that ventured too close before grabbing Wolf and putting him over his shoulder. He slammed his free hand onto the ground, opening a portal underneath him and falling into it before it winked out. The creatures all roared in unison, frustrated that their meal had escaped.

xXxXxXxXxXx

A dark green dragon slept in a dark forest that no sane being would venture into. His red wing membranes, as well as the rest of his body, were covered in crimson, runic markings that marked him as one who had successfully completed the Vredranx Ritual and would never repent their sins in doing so. The power radiating off him in waves kept the vicious predators from going anywhere near him for fear of being destroyed in very gruesome ways, leaving the dragon to snooze in peace.

His restful sleep was interrupted when a small jolt of electricity struck his muzzle and went through his entire body, causing him to jump to his feet in full awareness. His eyes were crimson with flecks of black. They locked onto a small light just in front him that seemed to come from nowhere and saw it release another jolt that struck the ground and left a tiny scorch mark on the ground.

"What the hell?" he wondered aloud, his eyes narrowing on the insignificant hole.

"Gabriel…" a feminine voice called out of the hole. The voice sounded strangely familiar, but he couldn't place it as he took a cautious step forward.

"Who's asking?" he said nonchalantly, the marks on his body glowing faintly as if trying to intimidate a threat. The portal responded by growing even larger than him and emitting a bright light that forced him to look away. After it faded enough, he turned back to see a cloaked figure standing in front of the portal. Her hood was down, revealing a violet-haired, red-eyed goddess. She was beautiful, but this was marred by the crimson, spiked veil she wore over her shoulders.

She smirked as she replied, "An old flame…"

"Mara…" he whispered in realization, a devious grin forming on his face, "How may I be of service?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: …I'm _so _gonna kill those two.

*Aingeru whispers something in his ear*

Jacy: _After _Wolf wakes up, that is…

Aingeru: Because he's going to forget, Review and Comment because it's the only reason he writes!


	8. Chapter 8: Unexpected Developments

Jacy: Well, I think I've out done myself with this chapter.

Wolf: Quite possible, but I don't mean the chapter.

*Jacy walks out the door, punching through the wall as he did*

Wolf: Sheesh, touchy-touchy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use, I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 8: Unexpected Developments

Deryx dug through the tough dirt with a crystal shovel he'd made out of one of the larger crystals growing everywhere, preparing the final resting place of Nguyen's body whilst his spirit joined the Ancestors. Behind him, Spyro and Malefor dug as well, though the two purple dragons refused to look at one another and were as far away from each other as the small grave would allow.

Outside the hole, Talea and Cynder readied the body while Annabelle tried in vain to awaken the sleeping Dextran. The two dragonesses had removed the poisoned blade from his shoulder and were cleaning him, Talea washing him with her Water element while Cynder dried him with her Wind element, with tears in their eyes.

Annabelle tried everything she could think of to wake the unconscious Dex, but nothing seemed to work. She shoved him, but he didn't even stir. She jabbed his side with her clawed paw, all he did was mumble incoherently. She even tried licking his face, after making sure no one was looking, and he just chuckled softly in his sleep.

"Why won't you wake up?" she murmured hopelessly to herself.

"Because he's talking with the Chronicler," said a voice from behind her. She spun around to find herself face to face with a dragon that was only a little bit larger than she. He was black like the night sky and his pure onyx eyes glowed with an ethereal light. She was shocked at the size of his wings, however; they were huge, nearly the size of an adult's wings, and looked very out of place on the child-looking dragon.

"Who are you?" she asked cautiously, standing in front of Dextran protectively, "What do you want?"

"My name is Stardust," the dragon chuckled, amused by the young dragoness's attempt at looking threatening, "and I was told to bring a message at this exact moment."

"My Mom and Dad are over there," Annabelle said, motioning behind the strange dragon with her head.

"I don't think they'd hear me," Stardust snickered, moving aside and allowing her to see that everything had stopped, as if time itself had _halted_, "And the message isn't for them. It's for _you_."

"Me?" she asked, surprised enough to come out of her defensive stance in front of Dextran, "Who could've possibly known that I'd be here at this moment exactly? And how are you doing that?"

"Well, the Chronicler would know, but he didn't send me," he told her, "And how I'm doing that is fairly simple; I'm a Celestial Dragon."

"My Dad tells me stories about those," Annabelle said excitedly, getting side-tracked like any five-year-old would, "They control time and space, but I thought they were all gone…"

"They are, I am the last," he said and Annabelle was unsure if he was proud or saddened by this fact, "but I didn't travel back fifteen years to discuss my kind's looming extinction; I came to deliver the message _you _told me to."

"I told you to tell me something?" she asked, confused, "What?"

"You said that you had to—"

xXxXxXxXxXx

"—convince Dad that he has to trust Malefor," an older Annabelle told Stardust her message to her younger self, "Because if he doesn't, then this future, where Death's Embrace rules and has killed him and almost everyone who stand as a threat against them in this realm as well as shut it off from all the other realms, will become a reality. It must not be so."

Annabelle was about the size of her mother, Cynder, now, but she was slightly more muscled than her due to the amount of fighting she had to do. Her green eyes were full of sorrow and there were faded gold marks under her eyes and a still-glinting starburst on her right shoulder, the marks that all leaders of the Dawn Resistance, a ragtag group of creatures from dragons to elves to moles to cheetahs, in memorial of their first leader who perished during their first real strike back against Death's Embrace, Dextran. Leadership had shifted constantly after that, going from one to the next before finally coming to her. Since then, she'd not only been the most successful since Dex, but also the longest surviving one as well.

"How do you know a five-year-old will be able to understand what to do?" Stardust questioned the blue dragoness. He looked exactly the same as he always did, like a child dragon with overlarge wings, but his looks were deceiving. He was actually older than most would believe, as old as time itself even.

Annabelle smiled as she said, "I was a smart child, not only will I understand, I'll perform better than you can ima—"

She was interrupted by the sound of something hitting the large metal door that blocked anything from getting into the bunker-like room that the two had decided to have this conversation in, knowing it'd be too dangerous to have it back at the home base of the Resistance, with enough force to dent the metal.

"They've found us!" Stardust exclaimed, looking at the door in alarm. Another bang sounded as whatever was outside hit it again, putting another dent in it. Annabelle got in front of the smaller dragon and got into a defensive stance.

"Go!" she ordered, looking back at him over her shoulder, "Deliver the message!"

"I'm not leaving you!" He shouted, "They'll kill you!"

"As part of this Resistance, you listen to _my _orders," she told him, turning back to look at the door, "And I _order _you to leave me!"

Stardust opened his mouth to continue to argue, but stopped himself as he realized it was useless and instead said, "Give 'em hell, Annie."

"You know I will," she said, smirking though she knew he couldn't see it, "Now go!"

He nodded before closing his onyx eyes and winked out of sight with a black flash. Just as he did, a boulder-like fist ripped through the door like it was wet paper. Annabelle recognized it as belonging to a creature her parents told her they fought several of during the war against the Dark Master, it was called a Troll if she remembered correctly. Another rock looking hand tore through the door before it was ripped off and thrown somewhere.

However, it wasn't the Troll that entered first. Instead, a huge, pitch-black dragon walked through, followed closely by two mottled green and blue wyverns that were covered in scars, then the Troll entered. There was a thin scar all the way around the dragon's neck and his crimson-red eyes were filled with sadistic amusement as he looked at Annabelle. Her parents told her of this dragon as well, having fought against his forces and saw him beheaded at the end of the Second Darkness War. It was Ragnarok, brought back during the Fall of Warfang fifteen years ago by the use of Death's Embrace's Dark Magic.

Annabelle glared at the larger dragon as he approached and continued to as he came to a halt a few feet in front of her. She grimaced at the stench of un-death his breath had and he chuckled at the sight, causing her to gag slightly.

"Ah, Annabelle," he said with a malicious grin, "How good it is to see you again."

"I'm sorry I can't say the same, Ragnarok," she said sarcastically.

"You and your little resistance have been causing a lot of irritation to High Priestess Mara," Ragnarok said, frowning.

"Good to hear our efforts haven't gone unnoticed," she responded, smirking.

"Quite," Ragnarok said, cocking his head to the side slightly, "but it ends today. The Dawn Resistance will end with you, Annabelle."

"I thought Gabriel was Mara's executioner," she commented.

"Oh he is," he said, chuckling darkly, "but Mara wants you to be made an example of, and your punishment will make you wish for death."

He lunged at her and she prepared to blast him directly in the face with a wave of ice, but before she could he stumbled back, roaring in agony. It took her a moment to notice the blood dripping from the slash mark across his muzzle.

"Stay the hell away from my daughter-in-law, Ragnarok," an angry, yet familiar voice ordered harshly. A tall figure fell from above them and landed between Annabelle and the black dragon, followed by another figure astride a green dragoness. The first figure had short, sandy-blonde hair that had a few grey and white hairs scattered through it and a pair of ivory horns growing out of it. He wore a black cloak that resembled those of the Death's Embrace members, but his was frayed at the bottom and had several holes in it, allowing her to see that he had wings tucked underneath it like an under cape. He held a sword loosely in his right hand that dripped the crimson ichor that was Ragnarok's blood.

The man riding the dragoness had dark brown hair with streaks of silver running through it. He wore a worn black overcoat with three holes, like scratches, going across the back and revealed he wore a dark green shirt as well as a pair of blue cargo jeans underneath. He held a pair of strange metal devices, one in each hand, which Annabelle did not recognize.

The green dragoness underneath him had a white underbelly and wing membranes. There were a few scales that were losing their color, but they wouldn't be noticed if you weren't looking for them. She also had what looked like an image the man on her back on her left foreleg.

The blonde man looked back at Annabelle over his shoulder, revealing battle-hardened yet caring brown eyes and week-old stubble on his chin, and said, "You alright, Annie?"

"Blane?" she asked, shocked at the sight of her deceased mate's father.

"The one and only," he said, smiling kindly.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"It can't be…" Rurik said, eyes widening in disbelief, "I saw you destroyed!"

A figure began to form out of the darkness. First it was an amorphous mass, and then it began to form into a defined shape. When it reached them, it had completely formed into the appearance of a dragon. It was made completely of black smoke with glowing red eyes.

"I _was _destroyed," the smoke dragon said, "But Death's Embrace restored me under Master Merikh's orders and gave me this body to use."

"Who is that?" Blane whispered to Rurik, but the others heard it anyway.

"His name is—" Rurik began, but the shadowy dragon cut him off.

"My name is Cadmus, and I am Fear Eternal!" he shouted, causing it to echo in the cave-like place they stood, "Thirty years ago, your father and several of his allies ended my reign of Swyndria, our home, by destroying my mortal body and sealing me off from the Ancestors. But now that I've returned, my reign shall begin anew in this realm under Master Merikh!"

"Cadmus, listen to me!" Rurik yelled, "You gave us no choice but to end your life! We tried everything we could to try to free you from the darkness that stains your heart, for Sylvia's sake!"

"My sister joined our parents in death the moment she fell for you, a _human_!" Cadmus spat, saying the last word with extreme distaste.

"Wait a minute," Blane said, eyes widening in realization, "He's…my _uncle_?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Lilia watched, frozen in terror, as Athkor walked until he came to a stop in front of her. Shown in his eyes was the thing she feared, despite her claims of fearing nothing. She saw everyone abandoning her; friends, family, lovers, they all left despite her begging them not to.

Cain felt the vines on him go limp as Lilia lost her focus. He shook them off, careful not to cause Elana to fall off. He watched as Athkor still didn't stop after he was freed, if anything he made her fears stronger and began to grin at the pain they caused her.

"What happened to fearing nothing?" Athkor mocked her, "You seem pretty afraid to me."

Lilia was unable to speak as her fears, quite literally, brought her to her knees. Her eyes started to glaze over as she began to hyperventilate, making Cain realize he had to intervene before something bad happened.

"Athkor stop!" he shouted, "That's enough!"

"No, father, it isn't enough," he said, not breaking eye contact with the incapacitated Death's Embrace member, "She has to pay for the deaths she caused, at the price of her own life!"

"This isn't you!" Cain told him, taking a step forward, "You aren't some sadistic monster!"

"How would you know?" Athkor demanded, turning on him and letting Lilia fall to the ground, unconscious, now that she wasn't looking into his eyes, "How the hell would you know _anything _about me? Up until five years ago, we each thought the other was dead! How do you know this isn't me?"

"Because I found myself after I remembered your mother and found out you were alive!" Cain yelled, stomping his foot, "If I, the one who killed all of the Elders and made myself a tyrant over all of Gredanka, was not truly evil then there is no way you are. Find yourself, Athkor, please!"

"Listen to him, Athkor," the robed man, whose name Cain remembered was Ignotus, said, "Find yourself, find what makes you _you _and grab hold of it!"

Athkor was silent for a moment before he spoke so softly that none of them could hear him, "My family…"

After he spoke, his eyes began to close and he wobbled for a moment before he collapsed onto the ground. Cain tried to take a step towards him, but Ignotus shook his head.

"Hunter and I will look after him and the Death's Embrace member, Cain," he told him, "You, Fian, and Nite must go help those in the temple."

"Keep him safe, Ignotus," Cain murmured, looking at his son's comatose form, "He's the only thing, besides my memories, that I have left of her."

"No harm shall come to him," Ignotus assured him kindly as Fian and the midnight-blue dragon walked over to Cain's side, "Nor to the one on your back, should you choose to leave her here."

"I swore that _I'd _keep her safe," Cain told him forcefully, "No one else."

"Then you will break that oath if you take her with you," Ignotus said calmly, lacing his fingers together, "Inside of that temple, it is a battlefield, and if you don't have complete focus on what you're doing, then you and she _will _die."

Cain didn't speak for a moment before he relented, "Alright, I'll leave her here, but I want to know how my son learned one of those damned Dark Elements."

He felt the weight that was Elana lifted off his back and watched as her limp form floated through the air towards Ignotus before lowering to the ground at his feet. He knelt down and checked her pulse and moved her head so he could see both sides of her face before placing his hand on her forehead and muttering a spell under his breath.

Afterwards, he looked up at Cain and said, "That is a question we both want answered. Now go, inside is where you're needed."

The three, two dragons and an elf, nodded simultaneously before turning around and running into the temple. When the three were out of sight, Ignotus looked back down at the unconscious Elana and brushed aside the brown bangs that were covering her forehead to reveal a glistening silver mark that resembled a small, twinkling star.

Hunter, who had finished tying Lilia to a tree with rope that Ignotus himself had enchanted to prevent anyone bound by it from using magic, walked over to where Ignotus was kneeling and looked at the mark in bewilderment.

"What is that?" he questioned curiously.

"It's a Rebirth Sigil," Ignotus explained, "This girl was once among the Ancestors, but she chose to rejoin the living by means of rebirth at the cost of her memories. But it's strange…"

"What is?" Hunter asked the robed, kneeling man whom he had only met a few hours ago yet he already considered him a friend. Before he verbally responded, Ignotus waved his open palm over Elana's face, the baggy sleeve of his robe just brushing the tip of her nose, and the mark on her forehead began to glow brightly before fading back to normal, unchanged.

"It's as if the magic of the Sigil has been altered, like someone doesn't want it known who she was," he told the Avalarian, shaking his head.

"Perhaps it was her?" the cheetah suggested, gesturing towards the young brunette, "Maybe she wanted to keep who she was a secret?"

"While that's a good guess, it's unlikely as she wouldn't remember anything of her previous life," Ignotus responded, "No, it isn't her blocking me. And I didn't think it was her choice to be reborn, either."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kain felt a moment of weightlessness as he fell into the portal he created below him. Gravity reasserted itself with a vengeance, however, as Kain found he had not made the exit portal in the right spot and he and the unconscious Wolf plummeted towards the bay below.

"Damn it!" he shouted as Wolf slipped from his grip and hit the water before him. He grabbed the lifeless canine before he could sink into the murky water. The weight from his wet clothing and Wolf's soaked fur began to drag the two down anyway and Kain quickly unzipped his heavy, camouflaged shirt and pulled it off. The article of clothing sunk due to its weight, but Kain paid it no mind as he was able to keep himself and Wolf afloat now.

He tried to open a portal to get them to the docks, but found he was unable to. He tried again and again but it was useless.

"It can't end this way," he whispered hopelessly, "It just can't!"

He tried to swim towards the shore, but stopped when he realized it was pointless. He continued to tread water while holding up the comatose Wolf. He felt his legs begin to cramp as he grew tired.

"Why now?" Kain shouted at no one, "Why the hell did we get a chance to come back if we just die like this?"

He hit the water in frustration and the water splashed him in the face. He watched in shock as the water began to swirl before revealing a portal. He quickly dove into it, not questioning where it came out. He closed his eyes as he felt like he was being squeezed from all sides before landing on something soft.

He opened his eyes to find himself looking up into the face of a concerned-looking Wolf. He tried to speak, but found his throat was unimaginably dry and no sound came from his mouth. Wolf turned and said something to someone to his left that Kain couldn't hear, as though his ears were full of cotton. When he finished talking, Wolf turned back to look at Kain and he felt warmth spread through his ears and when Wolf spoke this time, Kain could hear him.

"Kain," Wolf said slowly, "Try not to move or talk just yet, you've been out for quite a while."

Before Kain could ask what he was talking about, he felt his head moved from its spot against the cushion up until it was resting upon the ample chest of a woman. His breathing hitched for a moment and he looked up to see a familiar, blue-eyed gaze framed by golden locks of hair looking back.

"Hanna?" he croaked, his dry lips cracking and beginning to bleed, "You're alive…?"

"And thriving, handsome," she smiled, dabbing at the blood with a tissue, "Who do you think brought you out of that weeklong nightmare, after all?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Outside of the makeshift infirmary room, Jacy watched the scene play out through the rectangular window on the door. After a few moments he walked over to the room next to it, where Rosangela was making sure Kera would fully recover from the wounds inflicted to her while in Merikh's capture wouldn't leave any long-term damage.

He opened the door just as Rosangela was leaving. They stared silently at one another for a while, silver eyes boring into green, both waiting for the other to speak first. Then, out of nowhere, she slapped him, hard, across the face and caused his head to jerk to the side.

"Congratulations," she said sarcastically, shoving her way past him and continuing down the hall.

Jacy brought his hand to the cheek she'd slapped and looked into the room, where Kera sat on the small bed with a hand on her abdomen. She was looking down into her lap and seemed lost in thought.

"The hell was that about?" he questioned, stepping into the room.

"She's frustrated, I think," she responded carefully, not looking up, "Do you really think that's Hanna?"

"It seems like it's her, she even likes Kain like she was after going into my mind and meeting him," Jacy answered slowly, "But why would she congratulate me if she was frustrated, and why is she frustrated to begin with?"

"But how do we know this isn't one of Merikh's tricks?" she asked placing both hands, palms down, at her sides.

"Because I anticipated something like this happening and had her tell me the phrase everyone who seems to come back from the dead has to say, in three languages, and she did it perfectly," he responded, walking over and standing in front of her, "But you didn't answer my question."

"It's…complicated, Jacy," she said dodgily, turning her head to look at the door.

He knelt down, placing one hand on her knee while the other moved her head to look at him before he moved it to her other knee, before saying, "Kera, I can feel your distress. You know you can tell me anything, so tell me what's bothering you, please."

She looked into his dark green eyes and saw the love and trust he felt for her reflected in them. Hers began to tear up as she brought her hands up and placed them on his cheeks, feeling the stubble that had begun to grow since he shaved a few days ago.

"Jacy," she said softly, "I'm pregnant."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"All the pieces are falling into place," said a man sitting at a table made of black stone that had a chessboard-like top. On the tabletop were figurines of different people and creatures, some standing while others were knocked over and even crushed.

The man himself was pale-skinned with hair so dark it was almost black. His dark hair was just long enough to cover his forehead and partially hide his eyebrows, but kept his reddish-brown eyes completely visible. His face had three scars that resembled scratches from claws going diagonally from just above his right eye across to his left cheek.

"Where does Fear's piece lie, if I may ask?" came a voice from behind the man. He looked over his shoulder to see a dragoness walking through the doorway and over to him.

The dragoness was long and slender, with black scales and purple eyes that could hypnotize a rock into walking. Eight long, blood-red horns curved back from of her head and the sides of her face. Her wing membranes glinted a dark silver color in the light given off by the torches hanging on the walls and cast a shadow over her onyx underbelly.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were _concerned _about him, Arana," the man commented, smirking.

"Not a chance, _Merikh_," the dragoness scoffed, "I just need to know if I'll be collecting a breathing, in-control Fear, or his corpse."

"Neither," Merikh said, reaching over and grabbing figurines that resembled Cain and Arana respectively and sat them down on opposite colored spots facing each other, "You'll be going after an old acquaintance of yours."

"Dead or alive?" she asked, grinning maliciously.

"Alive is preferable, but you and I both know he'll be dead when you bring him to me," he responded, waving his hand over one of the crushed statues and causing it to reform into a figurine of Ragnarok, "Now go; I have plans to make. A member of Death's Embrace is waiting in the next room to take you to where you'll find him."

"Expect me back in a few hours," Arana said, turning around, "_With _Cain."

"Oh, I expect you back," Merikh chuckled to himself as she left, moving figurines of Nite and Fian to the sides of Arana's statuette, "but it'll be _him_ that brings _you_."


	9. Chapter 9: Loose Ends

Nothing witty to put here, after all I kinda fell asleep typing this. Anyway, hope you enjoy while I go get some aspirin for my aching head.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 9: Loose Ends

Jacy was unable to keep the shock off his face, his jaw dropping at her words. He quickly closed it, however, and stood up slowly. He began to pace back and forth in front of Kera with one hand in front of his mouth, assuming his look of deep thought.

She watched him do so for several minutes, petrified at the thought of him angry at her, and softly begged, "Say something, _please_."

He stopped and looked over at her, removing his hand to reveal he was grinning, before he picked her up and kissed her passionately. Kera was caught off-guard for a moment, but quickly melted into it as her worries faded away and her hands found their way behind his neck to hold him in place. After a few minutes, he placed her back on the ground and broke the contact, but their lips remained a hairsbreadth away and his arms wrapped around her waist to keep them pressed against one another.

"I don't know what to say," He whispered lovingly, his green eyes looking deeply into her blue, "but this just gives me another reason to do this."

"Do wha…" she trailed off as she watched him slide down to one knee and look up at her, his hand going into his coat pocket to pull out a small black box.

"Kera," Jacy said, opening the box to reveal a silver ring inlaid with an emerald at the top and two smaller sapphires at its sides, "Will you marry me?"

"It's so beautiful…" she breathed dreamily, tearing up, "Of course I will!"

Jacy took the ring out of the box, throwing the now-empty case behind him, and slid the ring onto the ring finger on her left hand. Afterwards, he stood up and wrapped his arms around her again while she placed her arms around his neck before they kissed once more.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain, Nite, and Fian entered the temple and were immediately hit with a sense of unease. The stone the temple was made of had darkened to black while the cracks and separations between the stones glowed a dull red color, giving the building an ominous feel.

The three were unnerved by the lack of sound, though none spoke to break the silence, either. The only noises came from their footfalls and breathing, and the only light came from the glow of the walls and the crimson crystals hanging on them.

As they walked through the deserted corridors, they watched alertly for any sign of movement from both friend and foe. The only signs they found that showed anyone had even been in this hallway were the pools of blood in the wall and dripping from the walls. When they finally caught sight of something, they weren't expecting what it was.

It was Arlyn, and he was hurt badly. He had several wounds covering his body, but the worst was a large gash that went down his underbelly that nearly had his organs out on the floor. He was lying on his side, making his labored breathing obvious, in a pool of his own blood and had several stone arrows sticking out of various places on his body. His tail was missing a good chunk near the tip and it looked like one of his back legs was broken as well.

When the severely injured dragon saw them approaching, he spoke weakly, "Don't any of you dare try to help me; I'm far beyond it making a difference."

"We can't just leave you here to die!" Cain protested as his group came to a stop next to the Water Dragon.

"You can if you want to stop them from bringing Ragnarok back from the dead and using him to kill everyone," Arlyn said softly.

Cain wanted to argue, but knew it would be a pointless venture. The old dragon before him was right in saying that any attempt to help him would be for naught; the life in his eyes had already begun to fade.

"May the Ancestors reclaim you warmly, my friend," the red dragon said, warm tears falling down his face.

"Don't waste your tears on me, Cain," Arlyn breathed, a weak chuckle escaping his throat, "I died a hero once before, not many get the chance to do so twice."

The dying dragon took one last, ragged breath before his body fell limp. The three, dragons and elf, bowed their heads in silence, honoring the fallen Water Dragon. After a moment, they looked up with determined looks on their faces.

"Let's move," Cain said softly, "We won't find the others by standing around here."

Fian and Nite nodded in agreement and the three continued down the hall. A few moments later, the hazel young head of Serenity peeked around a corner and saw the three and hurried towards them. Cain heard the pawsteps and turned around to see the young one running towards them. He came to a halt, grinning, as she caught up with him and climbed up on top of him.

"Good to see you're okay," he said calmly, "Do you know where Arcaein is?"

She nodded and said, "Down this hall and a little ways into the one to the right."

"Alright," Cain said, resuming walking with Nite and Fian at his sides, "We've got a General to rescue."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"You alone must change this past, your present, so that my present, your future, doesn't come to be," Stardust told the little Annabelle. She looked back at the Celestial dragon with wide eyes.

"I-I don't know if I can do it," she said nervously, shaking her head, "Daddy, he…he hates that other purple dragon for what he did to Mommy. And he said it was his fault that…that Nguyen is gone."

Her voice faltered at the last part and she shivered with unshed tears. Stardust's own doubts began to resurface, but he pushed them away in honor of the Annabelle he knew.

"Listen," he said confidently, "You _can _do this. _You_ knew you could do this, and _I _have faith in you. Your father is wrong; Malefor is a good dragon, your mother sees this, but _you _have to show Spyro this. Open his eyes to the truth, Annie."

"I-I'll try," she murmured, nodding.

"Don't try, _succeed_," he told her, grinning. And then he winked out of sight with a black flash, the world resuming its movement as he did. Annabelle looked over her shoulder and saw Dex was still unconscious. She readied herself before hurrying over to where Spyro, Deryx, and Malefor were climbing out of the finished grave.

She came to a stop in front of Spyro and spoke rapidly, "A Celestial Dragon named Stardust from the future stopped time and told me to tell you that you had to trust that other purple dragon or everyone is going to die!"

"Easy, sweetheart, _easy_," he said gently, leaning down so he was at her height, "Now say all of that again slowly."

Annabelle did as she was told and repeated herself, though this time she spoke slowly. When she was finished, Spyro wanted to scold her for lying, but the seriousness in her eyes made him stop. He was struck speechless at that realization, Deryx and Malefor faring no better.

Before any of them could respond, however, a groaning sound came from behind Annabelle. They all looked to see Dex stirring. He quickly jumped to his feet and spoke in panic.

"We have to get back to Warfang before something really bad happens!"

xXxXxXxXxXx

"How did you survive?" Kain questioned the young telepath as she took the glass of water away from his lips, "Everyone there saw you ripped apart!"

"I'm…not exactly sure," she answered slowly, placing the glass on the table next to her, "The last thing I can remember is that fight with Merikh, and then I just woke up in a building a few blocks away yesterday."

"That's it?" he asked, "Everyone thought you were dead for five years and you can't even recall where you were for all that time?"

"I wish I could remember," she sighed, resting her cheek on top of his head, "Really I do. But, I just _can't_."

Kain felt her arms rest on his shoulders while her hands were clasped together over his chest. He brought one of his up and patted hers comfortingly. As he did, he felt s brush against his mind just before he was pulled into a memory that wasn't his own.

He was looking through another's eyes at a dark, empty room. He could feel the chains holding the wrists of the person he was seeing through above their head as if they were around his own. He was merely a spectator and was unable to control when the memory's owner began to struggle against their bonds and look about wildly.

There was a loud clanking noise followed by the sound of a large metal door opening on hinges badly in need of oiling. Kain felt his own muscles clench as the owner of the body turned their head towards the sounds.

He saw a familiar man standing in the open doorway and heard a voice that was unmistakable for anyone else come from his lips, "Hello, Hanna. Are you ready to go help your precious Kain out of his never-ending nightmare before he and all your friends die?"

"Merikh…" Kain and she murmured at the same time. Then, just as suddenly as he was pulled into it, he was yanked out of the memory and found himself back in Hanna's arms, panting.

"Are you alright?" she asked him concernedly, "You passed out for a few moments and started mumbling and fidgeting."

"I'm…fine," he answered cautiously, "But I think I just got a glimpse of where you were. And I think we're about to be attacked as well."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"You…won't get away with this," growled a chained, bleeding Arcaein. He was shackled so that he was standing and facing Mara, but a collar made of Dark Crystal prevented him from using his element to obliterate her.

He was covered in cuts and bruises, a scratch above his eye dripping blood down his face and causing him to keep it shut to keep the blood out of it. His remaining eye, however, glared at the High-Priestess with the intensity of two.

He had no idea where she was keeping the Guardians and his fellow Generals, but he did see the portal she'd opened to Cain's realm and watched her bring Cain's brother Gabriel through. The green dragon was now patrolling through the temple for any intruders with several of the Death's Embrace members. Now he watched as she prepared to use the Dark Magic of Necromancy to return Ragnarok to life.

"No one is coming to keep me from my goal, _dragon_," she responded calmly as she drew a circle with several sigils on the ground with a red liquid that looked and smelled suspiciously like blood.

"Can you honestly say that you didn't see this coming?" asked the sarcastic voice of Cain from the doorway. Mara and Arcaein turned to look at him as he and his two comrades walked into the room, Cain carrying the young Serenity on his back.

"I can, old friend," said a voice that brought back memories, both wonderful and horrible, to Cain's mind and sent chills down his spine, "You were always so predictable."

He watched, frozen in his tracks, as a familiar black dragoness stepped out of the shadows she'd been using as a veil so she could watch in secret. Her amethyst eyes zoned in on the stunned red dragon with malicious intent. However, Fian and Nite stepped in front of Cain and doing so broke whatever hold she'd had on him.

"Maybe I was, Arana, but many things have changed since we last saw each other," he said softly, "But you're every bit as devious as you were then."

"You're too kind," she said with mock-gratitude, "but that won't stop me from dragging you to my master."

Cain smirked at that and commented, "In all the time I've known you, I never marked you down as one who recognized a master."

The two of them had continued walking, leaving their allies behind, and met in the middle of the room. When they stopped, their faces were inches apart.

"I recognized one before," she breathed, "but Merikh promised me more than you _ever _could."

Fian leaned over and whispered to Nite, "Were they together or something?"

"Something like that." He grunted in response.

"Whatever he promised you, he _lied_, Arana," Cain told her, "Don't be a fool and fight me."

"The blood-thirsty Cain trying to avoid a fight?" she asked with poorly-faked shock, "My, my, you certainly _have _changed. What happened?"

"I found myself with the help of my friends," he said, his crimson gaze locking unflinchingly with her purple, "And, if you'll let me, I'll help you do the same."

"This is me," Arana said, shaking her head, "There's nothing left to find."

xXxXxXxXxXx

So, yeah, not as long as some of my chapters, but still pretty decent in my opinion, though I'm still open to any criticism that tells me anything I need to improve on. On a side note, to those whose OCs I'm using, if I got their personalities wrong I apologize. Let me know and I'll try to fix it in the future.

Review please, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy.


	10. Chapter 10: All Hell Breaks Loose

Well, Chapter 10 is here. I hope it's good because unlike the others, I didn't write this one out first. Anyways, hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 10: All Hell Breaks Loose

Kain had Hanna help him stand, despite her protests, and she helped him walk to the door. Once there, she opened the door and Kain, being the stubborn person he was, refused to let her continue to aid him in walking. He did well, all things considering, but he still stumbled every now and then, Hanna staying at his side to make sure he didn't fall.

After a short while, they made it to the makeshift conference room where all the leaders except Kera and Jacy were arguing over their next move. Even Aingeru, who was normally very quiet in the meetings, was in on the dispute. The two of them entered and all of the leaders went silent and looked at them.

None of them were quite over the apparent resurrection of Hanna, and they looked at her with looks of slight shock. However, Kain had things that needed to be said and he wasn't sure how they would react when he told them.

"I know where Hanna was for the past five years," he said slowly, placing his hands down on the table both for support and dramatic effect, "or, I have a pretty good guess anyway. But that's only part of what I need to tell all of you. And believe me; the second part is much worse than the first."

"Tell us what you need to tell us, Kain," Aingeru said calmly, contrasting the shouting attitude he had earlier. The others nodded their agreement, with Smoke adding a small grunt.

"Hanna was…Merikh's prisoner. I got a glimpse into her memory and saw him through her eyes," he told them, all of them, Hanna included, widening their eyes in shock, "And even worse, I think he's sending his army here, soon."

"How long do you believe we have?" Acelan asked, his features shifting slightly as he spoke.

"Not very," he said, "I suggest warning every—"

Kain suddenly collapsed, Hanna quickly moving to catch him. She held him gingerly as she sat there on her knees. Everyone watched as she placed her palm on his forehead and closed her eyes. After a moment, she removed her hand and opened her eyes.

"He'll be fine," she told them, "but we may have even less time than we thought."

"What makes you say that?" Fera asked, eyes narrowing.

"Well, besides the giant fireball heading right for that window…?" she asked sarcastically. The others immediately turned around to see that the young blonde had been speaking the truth, there was indeed a fireball heading right for the boarded up window.

Marie attempted to use her control over the elements to make the fireball go out, but it was useless. Realizing this, Fera shifted into her dragon form and placed herself in front of the others just as the fireball smashed right through the boards. It collided with the dragoness and knocked her back several feet, but she skidded to a stop just in front of the ones she was protecting.

"Get Kain out of here and warn everyone," Smoke shouted as he readied the rifle he carried on his back, "Now!"

Hanna nodded quickly and picked up the unconscious man she had in her lap. She hurried out of the room to find that several fireballs had hit the building and everyone was trying to put out the fires before they spread. None of them noticed, as she did, the army of dark creatures heading towards the building.

"The fires are the least of our problems!" she shouted as she ran through the room, back to the infirmary to warn Jacy and Kera. However, as she was heading there, a giant grey-skinned troll smashed through the wall beside her and knocked her on her rear. She was frozen in terror as the beast let out a monstrous, blood-curdling roar.

Just before it charged, though, Kain's eyes opened and he ran at it with a black blade in his hand. He jumped and stabbed the troll right through the chin and the blade pierced all the way through its skull. It flailed for a few moments, Kain holding onto his blade tightly as it did, before it fell onto its back, dead. He pulled his sword out of its head and turned to look at Hanna with a grin on his face.

"C'mon, we've got work to do!" he said.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Arana swung a paw at Cain's face, but the crimson dragon ducked under the swipe and head-butted her in the chest. She stumbled back, the wind knocked out of her slightly, but Cain didn't attack her while she was disoriented. Serenity quickly jumped off Cain's back and ran over to where Arcaein was chained up so she wouldn't be hit by any of the attacks. Arana recovered after a moment and launched a wave of shadow fire at him, but Cain countered it with his own fire. The two continued this for a few seconds before stopping.

"Why are you holding back?" Arana demanded angrily.

"Because I'm not trying to hurt you," he told her, "I'm trying to get through to you."

"You're a fool," she scoffed before she ran at him, preparing to release a glob of acid at him. Cain could see the green colored liquid dripping from her mouth, however, and dug deep to find an ability he swore to never use again.

His body was engulfed in flames until it seemed he was made of them. His eyes turned completely crimson with no other visible color and glowed malevolently. He waited for the black dragoness to reach him before he tackled her, causing her to accidently shoot her acid at the wall next to Arcaein.

Meanwhile, Mara had continued on with her ritual of summoning Ragnarok back to life, using the fight as a distraction. Nite and Fian noticed this, however, but were unable to get past the two brawling dragons. The midnight-blue dragon used his element to launch a blast of what looked like starlight at the cuffs that held Arcaein. He broke them, and then he fired a smaller burst at the dark crystal collar and broke it.

Now free, Arcaein charged at the High Priestess with white flames licking at his teeth. Just before he could attack her, though, a green dragon smashed through the wall beside him and tackled him. The two rolled for a moment before separating. Arcaein recognized the dragon as Gabriel, the dragon Mara had brought through earlier, by the crimson markings on his body.

Out of the hole that he had created, came other members of Death's Embrace with various weapons made of various elements. They prepared to spread out and attack, but Arcaein launched a blast of white fire at them, burning them to cinders. After he did so, Gabriel slammed into him, using the older dragon's distraction to his advantage.

Cain, back to normal now that he had exhausted his ability, and Arana were circling each other, both looking for an opening in the other's defense to exploit. Both had scratches, bite marks, and burns covering their bodies that made them weaker, but neither showed it to their foe.

"Stop holding back!" she commanded, "There's nothing for you to show me about myself that I don't already know!"

"That's a lie and we both know it," Cain told her, "You stayed by my side all that time, not because of the power I offered you, but because _you_ wanted to save _me_. I intend to return the favor!"

"Shut up!" she yelled, rushing at him blindly. Cain quickly sidestepped her angered charge and hit her side. She fell off balance and Cain used this to flip her into her back and pin her. Neither one of them had any energy left to use their elements so she was only able to struggle uselessly.

Nite and Fian did their best to fend off the Death's Embrace members that attempted to get into the room through the doorway, but they were slowly being overwhelmed. Fian had to dispose of his bow as it was useless in close combat and switched to his blade and dagger. Nite used his apparent starlight element and clawed and snapped at the cloaked people. However, it wasn't long before the two felt fatigue begin to set in.

Fian had taken an arrow to his left shoulder and merely pulled it out and threw it at one of their foes faces, but the wound was causing him a great deal of pain and he could feel his reaction time slowing. Nite had several slashes from blades made of various elements and had numerous arrows stuck in his body. He, too, was weakening and knew that neither of them would last much longer.

Just then, twin blasts of fire and lighting mixed together hit the crowd of enemies and opened a way for two familiar, purple dragons to reach the elf and other dragon. Both of the dragons were fully refreshed and the adrenaline pumping through their bodies helped quite a lot.

"Spyro? And Malefor?" Fian asked, stunned, "What the hell is going on here!"

"Long story short, Malefor's good now and had a quick way to get us here while Deryx, Talea, Cynder, Annabelle, and Dex freed the Guardians and other Generals," Spyro explained quickly.

"And what of Nguyen?" the elf asked.

"He's dead," the younger purple dragon said softly.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane awoke to the sounds of shouting and gunshots. He quickly jumped to his feet to find he was in the middle of an apparent warzone. He had no idea how long he'd been out, the last thing he remembered was Rurik knocking him out of Aidan's head saying that he'd handle it himself.

He looked around to see he was in a mall of sorts, surrounded by monsters of every shape and size. He reached for his sword to find it missing and cursed softly. He saw a rifle nearby and was thankful that his training with Jacy and Kera had involved how to handle guns. He dove for it just as a demonic looking creature tried to grab for him.

After he got his hands on it, he spun around and began to fire at the creature's face while on his back. The bullets tore the red monster's head apart and it fell to the ground. He felt a strong hand grab him and pull him to his feet. He looked back to see an older man in military clothing was the one that helped him up.

"You must be that Blane fellow that Jacy told us to be expecting," the man shouted, making himself heard as he began to shoot at several of the different creatures everywhere with his own rifle, "Get to shooting, we need every hand we can get."

"Got it," the half-dragon said before he too began to shoot. He had no idea how he'd gotten here, but he could only hope that Aaron and the other gladiators were alright. He slowly made his way through the crowd of enemies, heading away from the old soldier, in an attempt to get to a group of people that were struggling to keep the creatures at bay while they tried to protect a group of children.

Blane finally reached them just as his ammo ran out and he smashed the now-useless weapon into the head of one of the monsters. It broke the ugly, deformed troll's skull, but the weapon also shattered on impact. One of the people tossed him a hand gun and he nodded in thanks before turning around and beginning to shoot at one of the creatures, a beast that resembled a giant man with only one eye in the middle of its bald head.

It took nearly the entire clip before the Cyclops fell down, crushing several of the smaller monsters behind it. The same person who gave him the sidearm then tossed him several spare clips while another of the people gave him another pistol of the same type. He once again nodded in thanks just as several of the monsters were engulfed in flames. Afterwards, a woman with bright orange hair fell into his still outstretched arms.

"Thanks, handsome," she said, looking up at him with light-green eyes.

"Not a problem," he said, grinning. She kissed him on the cheek before jumping out of his arms, drawing two handguns of her own and opening fire on some of the remaining creatures. He was caught off-guard, but was brought back to reality quickly by the sight of a giant fist headed right for him.

He bent backwards under the punch, before grabbing the arm as the owner of it began to pull it back. He found himself face-to-face with a giant man with a bull's head. He didn't have long to take in its features, however, as it flailed its fist in an attempt to shake him loose. Reacting quickly, Blane let go and put both of his pistols in front of him and shot the beast-man in the chest.

It stumbled back before letting out a ferocious roar and charging at him just as he rolled on the ground and landed in a kneeling position. Blane saw the sharp horns headed in his direction and tried to shoot again, but both of his guns clicked with the sounds of empty clips. Growling in frustration, Blane ran at the beast. He willed his own horns to grow and collided with the Minotaur. As he was considerably smaller, Blane was able to hit it right between the beast's horns.

It roared in agony, lifting the half-dragon up off the ground as his horns were still stuck in the monster's head. It shook its head for a few moments before Blane was able to pull himself loose and brought his hand, after he had willed his claws and scales to grow, down right between the spot his horns had been moments before. Due to it being weaker in that spot, his hand went right through the skull and Blane pulled his arm out, finding it covered in dark red blood.

The Minotaur fell to the ground and Blane jumped off as it did, landing on his feet in a crouching position. The beast landed on its front, just inches from where he was. He stood up and grabbed one of the Minotaur's horns and broke it off near the tip but with enough for him to use it as a weapon.

He looked at the crowd of enemies still standing, grinning, and said, "Who's next?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy and Kera jumped back as a giant creature that they recognized as a blue and green wyvern smashed through the wall of the room they were in. It skidded to a halt in the spot where they'd been moments before and let out what sounded like a cross between a hiss and a roar. The two quickly brought their hands to cover their ears in an instinctive response to the sound that berated against their eardrums.

It stopped after a moment and Jacy used the time to bring one of his elemental katana, this time an electric-yellow one with the word _Energy_ inscribed on it. He swung it and an arc of yellow energy launched from the blade and collided with the wyvern, causing it to spasm as it sent thousands of watts of electricity through it.

Jacy and Kera used this time to escape the cramped room. They hurried out of the hallway and into the wide open space where the main battle was going on. The two could make out their friends and allies fighting against the monsters that obviously outnumbered them.

"How the hell did he find us?" Jacy shouted as he grabbed an abandoned rifle on the ground and tossed it to Kera who began to shoot at any of the creatures that tried to come behind them.

"I don't know, but at this point it doesn't matter," she responded, shooting a creature that resembled an Orc from Lord of the Rings right between the eyes.

"We've gotta find a way to get these damn things outta here!" Jacy told her, slashing through a monster that seemed to be entirely made of stone, "Or at least draw enough away that we stand more of a chance!"

"I've got an idea," Kera said suddenly, looking at the brown-haired man, "But we have to find my sister to do it!"

"Go find her!" he told her urgently, "I'll be fine here!"

"I'm not going to leave you here!" she yelled, shooting at another of the monsters as she spoke, "These things will tear you apart!"

"And they'll tear us both apart if you don't go try your plan!" he countered, making eye contact with her, "I'll be fine!"

"Fine," she relented reluctantly, "Just don't get yourself killed."

"As long as you don't either," he said humorously, smirking. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle at his attitude before she jumped into the air and shifted into her dragon form to look for her sister.

Jacy watched for a moment before he brought his last katana, one that was a mixture of green and brown with the word _Life_ engraved on it. He brought both over his chest in an 'X' shape before scraping them together, creating a flurry of sparks. He stabbed the brown and green one into the ground and all of the beasts surrounding him found their feet covered with stone.

"Alone, each of these blades are powerful," Jacy said to no one in particular, "But when used with their opposite, they are even stronger."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Merikh still sat in his room where the chessboard with models of people and creatures was. Hundreds of the monster figurines had been moved to surround the statuettes of about a hundred that represented the Survivors. He watched them closely as figurines on both sides were either knocked over or were crushed.

"The battle has only just begun," he said, chuckling darkly, "and this time, I will be victorious. Not even Jacy will be able to stop me!"

He let out an evil laugh that echoed throughout the building he was in, causing even his minions and followers to shiver with terror.

xXxXxXxXxXx

That's chapter 10, hope you liked it.

I feel brain dead. I need to get outside more. Meh. I'm at the beach with a pool so, I'll decide which one I'll do.

Review 'cause I write better when I'm told people like me! Or when people tell me what I can improve on!


	11. Chapter 11: Reunions and Separations

Jacy: Not much to say, really…

Wolf: Why wasn't I mentioned in this chapter? *growling*

Jacy: You were, uh, in the background being too much of a badass to write. *sweat drops*

Wolf: That's right… *grumbling incoherently*

Jacy: I'm gonna start the disclaimers before I get mauled…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 11: Reunions and Separations

Hanna followed Kain, who seemed to have made a miraculous recovery, back out of the infirmary as they had seen Kera and Jacy run by them not too long ago. The two found themselves surrounded by various beasts from the darkest corners of myth, neither sure of what to do. Before the creatures could harm them, a wave of electricity hit them, shocking them with thousands of volts before they fell to the ground, likely dead.

They glanced to where their help had come from to see Jacy standing there, one hand on a sword stuck into the ground while the other held one near his side. He glanced at the two out of the corner of his eye, nodding slightly in acknowledgement, before he ran towards another crowd of monsters.

"Looks like we owe him one," Kain noted off-handedly, turning to look at Hanna, "C'mon!"

He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her along, pausing a moment to grab a discarded hand gun. After checking the ammo and finding it to his satisfaction, he handed it to Hanna. Almost immediately after he gave it to her, she fired it, the bullet whizzing by his head at a blinding speed. It pierced the skull of a zombie that had tried to attack him unawares, the blood and bits of its head spattering onto the two of them.

"Nice shot," Kain commented, smiling at her, "but next time, try to warn me first."

She nodded, grinning sheepishly, before the two took off towards where Marie was trying to fend off a large group of them. They could see she was visibly tiring from using so much of her ability in so short a time, without getting a moment to rest. They got to her side just before a giant, two-headed snake lunged at her.

Kain intercepted it and stabbed it in one of its heads, causing it to fall to the ground, writhing as it tried to get him off. He held on tightly, however, and twisted the blade inside its skull. He felt that head go limp and turned his head just in time to see the other head fly at him. It knocked him off, causing him to let go of the blade while it was still stuck in the dead one's skull.

He rolled for few moments before coming to a stop at the feet of a chimera. The dragon head took in a breath to breathe fire at him, giving him the chance to move out of the way just as it let it loose. He got to his feet just as it tried to stomp on him with one of its feet. He jumped onto its back, using the goat head as a hand hold, and then grabbed the snake tail. He made it bite into the lion's head, allowing the beast's own venom to begin to kill it.

As it began to collapse, he jumped off of it and hurried back to where Hanna and Marie were trying to fend off the huge snake, the one head hanging limp with his sword still stuck in it. It caught Hanna off-guard as she was trying to fend off a hellhound that came over as well, about to bite her in half at the waist. Kain got there just in time, though, and tackled her to the floor so its jaws clamped down on air.

"Now you and I are even," he said, grinning as he held himself over her with his arms beside her head.

"Not yet we're not," she told him before grabbing the back of his neck with her hands and pulling him towards her, while she brought her lips to his. He was surprised for a moment before closing his eyes and pushing even further into the kiss.

"Not that I'm not happy for the two of you or anything," Marie's voice shattered their private moment, "but I could _really _use your help right now!"

Kain pulled away and the two looked over to see the Elemental Marked One doing her best to keep the horde of monsters back with a wall of fire while also trying to fend off the massive snake. He got to his feet, after looking at Hanna apologetically, and ran over to the enormous serpent. He jumped onto its still moving head, using his sword to get there and pulling it out once he flew past it, and stabbed it in one of its eyes.

It hissed in agony and began to shake its head back in forth to dislodge him. The movement nearly did knock him loose, but Kain stubbornly held on with gritted teeth. He managed to pull his blade loose and was about to pierce it through the skull when he felt something go through his chest. He looked down to see a hole in his torso, beginning to leak his crimson blood.

His grip on the snake slackened and he fell off the side of it. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion to him as he dropped. He heard Hanna scream his name, but it seemed like it was miles away from him. Everything went black before he felt his back hit the floor.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Dex and Annabelle ran alongside Talea and Cynder as they hurried through the halls in search of the Guardians and Generals. They had separated from Spyro and Malefor after going through the portal in the caverns under the black citadel that let them out in the room with the Vision Pool as the two went to go find Arcaein while Deryx had been drawn outside by something he couldn't place. None of them spoke a word of argument to this and Deryx followed the strange feeling.

They'd come across a Death's Embrace member here and there, but they were no match for the four of them. As of yet, they'd found all of the rooms they had come across so far weren't holding anyone they were looking for. They had found Arlyn after a while of wandering through the halls, and waited a moment to pay the old water dragon their respects. They resumed moving after they were finished. They had slowed down to a slow walk just as they heard groaning and struggling from a room not far away.

They hurried over it to see a shocking sight. Inside there was a cloaked Death's Embrace member, who was wearing a butcher's apron over the black cloak, walking towards a bloody, beaten, and chained Ixenra with a sharp blade while a restrained Edarin was forced to watch. He was struggling against his bonds and vainly trying to use his element in an attempt to stop the person from harming her, but it was all useless.

Acting quickly, Dex and Annabelle went over to the large, green General quietly, while Talea and Cynder went over to the cloaked being. The two dragonesses merely disarmed the man, despite their want to rip him to shreds, while the two younglings freed the chained Edarin. Once he was loose, he charged towards the Death's Embrace member and mercilessly began to tear him to pieces. The two children looked away in fear as blood and gore began to fly about the room. Talea and Cynder proceeded to free Ixenra, who fell to the ground in a limp heap with hardly a groan.

Once Edarin finally stopped, all that was left of the would-be killer of the red dragoness was a crimson mess of blood, organs, and mess. He looked down at the pile for a moment, a look of regret on his face, but it vanished in a moment as he turned his attention to the still-unconscious Fire General. He walked over and began to nudge her awake with his muzzle. As he did so, Dex and Annabelle ran over to their mothers and hid underneath them.

Ixenra stirred for a moment, her eyes opening to see the bloodied face of Edarin and weakly teased, "You really are a messy eater."

"What can I say," he said, smiling and showing the crimson liquid was on his teeth as well, "Something about madmen trying to kill my mate just turns me into an animal."

"Well, I'm not kissing you 'till you wash it off, mister," she told him humorously, "Now do you mind helping me up?"

"Not at all," he said, placing his head under hers so she could use him as a counterweight when she began to stand. It took her a few minutes before she was able to stand, as well as several amusing failed attempts as she fell back down, but she still had to lean against the green dragon to remain on her feet.

"Now we've got to go find Kepesk and Arlyn," she said, turning to look at the others. The two dragonesses and younglings looked away in silent regret as they knew something the other two did not.

"We…already found Arlyn," Talea said softly, tears welling up at the corners of her eyes, "He's gone."

"Damn fool," Edarin cursed, shaking his head, "I told him not to stay behind while we tried to escape, but he wouldn't listen!"

"It's not your fault," Ixenra comforted him, nuzzling his cheek and getting a bit of the blood that covered his face on her, "We all tried to change his mind, but we all knew it was a useless attempt. He always put his friends before himself, as we all do."

"I know, I know, but mourning will have to be saved for another time," Edarin said quietly, "Kepesk is waiting for us to find and save him like you four did us."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Let me go!" Arana ordered as she continued to try to break the pin Cain had put her in.

"Not until you listen!" he shouted, getting her face with their muzzles touching and his crimson eyes boring into her purple, "Deep inside of you, I know is the truly caring person you are. And I intend to find it!"

Before she could respond, something hit Cain's side and knocked him off of her. Cain skidded on his side for a few feet before stopping and shaking his head to clear it. He looked to see what had hit him to see Gabriel walking over with a malicious grin on his face. Cain glanced behind his brother to see that Arcaein was being swarmed by Death's Embrace members.

"Hello brother," the green dragon said darkly, "How _wonderful_ it is to see you're still alive. That gives me the chance to kill you myself!"

"Gabriel," Cain growled, getting to his feet, "It's funny, I was thinking the SAME THING!"

The red dragon let out a roar before charging at the green dragon. The two collided and began clawing and biting each other in a frenzy of rage and fury. After a few moments, however, they backed off from each other and began to circle like how Cain and Arana had done previously.

"You were holding back against Arana," Gabriel commented, "Do you plan on doing the same with me?"

"Not a chance," Cain said bluntly, "Arana can still be saved from the darkness. You cannot. You've embraced it, joined with it, and now there is nothing left of the brother I grew up with."

"Now that's not true," he said, feigning hurt, "I still look like myself, don't I?"

"Only slightly," the crimson dragon said, "but the marks of the Vredranx Ritual stain what was once the Gabriel I knew. I'm not sorry for what must happen, but I do hope you find peace in death."

Unbeknownst to Gabriel, Cain had kept talking to buy himself time to regain some of his strength. As well as this, he had also put himself in front of a cluster of green crystals and being in close contact with it restored even more of his power. And now, he was ready to use it.

He once again touched down deep within himself and found the ability he'd used earlier. He activated it, but this time he poured every last bit of his power into it. He knew the dangers of doing such a thing, but knew that it was the only way he'd be able to stand a chance against his brother.

The flames that engulfed him were blue this time; however his eyes still turned crimson. His brother, having only seen this ability once and even then it had been red, was shocked beyond belief. He didn't show it, though, and pooled together the last of his power and doing so caused the red marks on his body to glow darkly.

"This is the showdown that was always meant to be, Cain," Gabriel said, "Our entire lives have been leading up to this moment. And only one of us will be walking away with our lives. When you greet Mother and Father, be sure to give them my regards."

Both of them looked into one another's eyes, waiting for the other to blink. The staring contest continued for a few moments before they both took deep breaths simultaneously and prepared to launch their final attacks.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane used the horn he'd broken off the Minotaur as a spear as he stabbed it at any of the creatures that came close. Finally, after one of them grew bold enough to charge, he threw it and grabbed one of his discarded handguns and replaced the clip. The horn impaled the grotesque, gargoyle-like creature and sent its black blood splattering onto its comrades. He then proceeded to shoot at them as he felt something climb onto his back. He glanced over his shoulder to see a silver dragonet looking at him with wide, differently-colored eyes.

Ignoring her for the moment, he looked back to the advancing beasts. He saw the winged-people he'd met earlier, Aingeru and Rosangela if he remembered correctly, fly over and begin to grab the children to move them to a safer spot. He was about to tell them about the youngling on his back, but felt her claws dig into his shoulders and preventing him.

"Ow!" he shouted, glancing at her, "What was that for?"

"I have to find Kera!" she told him, "She brought me here and I need to help her!"

"Look," he told her, shooting a small troll that came too close, "I can't watch you and fight off these things! I need you to go with them!"

"No!" she said firmly, "You're going to help me find Kera!"

"Thank the Ancestors that Dextran wasn't like this…" Blane groaned under his breath, "Fine! Just hold on!"

The dragonet nodded, smiling about getting what she wanted, and held onto him tightly. He grimaced at the feeling of her claws digging into his shoulders again, but remained silent as he made his way over to where the red-head that had fallen into his arms was fending off a small group of goblin-like creatures. Once he was standing next to her, she noticed him.

"Need something?" she asked, roundhouse kicking one of them one of the green monsters as it got within reach.

"You know where Kera is?" he asked her, "The hatchling on my back is refusing to go anywhere without her."

"Last I saw my sister was when she and Jacy came out of the infirmary after all this happened," she told him, causing him to look at her in surprise.

"You're Kera's sister? Fera?" he questioned, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

"The one and only," she answered, grinning, "But I never caught your name, handsome."

"Blane," he said, murmuring a soft curse as he once again had to reload his gun. Meanwhile, it was Fera's turn to be shocked. If this was the Blane that Jacy had been so adamant about bringing here, then he had a mate and child waiting for him back in his own realm. And she'd kissed him, on the cheek, but kissed him nonetheless. Boy did she feel bad.

"Jacy told me a lot about you, Blane," she said, keeping her tone level.

"Well, he and Kera told me a lot about you, too," he said, disarming a goblin of its wicked-looking blade and then stabbing it in the gut with it, before quietly adding, "And your brother as well."

"You wouldn't happen to know if he was okay, would you?" she asked hopefully, looking over at him as he pulled the sword from the green creature with its purple blood staining it.

"The most I can tell you is that he's alive," he said, reluctantly holding back on the fact that her brother was being controlled by a malevolent force that was once his uncle, "and that you might see him soon."

"Sooner than you think, even," said a voice from behind the two that both of them recognized. They turned around to see a man standing there. He had dark blue hair that was tinged red at the edges and electric blue eyes. He wore a blue coat with a red shirt underneath as well as a pair of faded jeans. He carried a sword that Blane recognized as his own over his shoulder.

"Aidan!" Fera squealed with joy, wrapping her arms around her brother while he tossed Blane his sword, who caught it with his free hand as he stabbed one of the monsters with the one he'd 'borrowed' from the goblin.

"Your dad said to give that back to you," he said, grinning, "And to say that he and your mother are always watching over you."

"Thanks," the half-dragon said, "I take it you're shadow dragon free?"

"Yeah," Aidan said, nodding, "but we have bigger things to worry about."

They all looked back to the crowd of horrid beasts that were waiting to get close enough to rip them apart. The three took up fighting stances, Blane tossing Aidan the goblin's sword, and prepared to fight off the horde of creatures.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Deryx walked out of the temple to find his mentor, Ignotus, kneeling next to the body of an apparent Death's Embrace member. What was odd, that he could see, was the silver mark on her forehead. It looked oddly familiar, like he'd seen it somewhere before, but he pushed it out of his head for the moment.

Also there was the Avalarian cheetah, Hunter, the unconscious Athkor, and another Death's Embrace member that was tied to the rope with what he could tell was charmed rope. The restrained woman was struggling violently, throwing out curses left and right, but his teacher and Hunter paid her no mind.

"Master Ignotus!" Deryx called, running over to where the older magic user was kneeling. The gray-haired man looked up and, upon seeing his old student, smiled and stood up. The two hugged briefly before Ignotus returned his attention to the Death's Embrace member he had been looking at previously.

"Why isn't she tied up like the other one?" Deryx asked, kneeling down next to his teacher.

"Because she's been unconscious for a while and it doesn't look like she'll be waking up anytime soon," the older man said, "and she has the Sigil of Rebirth on her forehead, but it's been altered somehow. I need to figure out a way to reverse it."

"_That's _a Sigil of Rebirth?" Deryx asked, surprised, "But I have that exact same mark on my back!"

"I know, though yours is much larger," Ignotus said, "You've been reborn several times, actually, but you don't remember because you forfeit your memories to do so. However, slight personality traits from each life remain with you."

"How many times have I been reborn, exactly?" the curious man asked.

"I don't know, exactly, but I'd have to guess somewhere in the forties due to the size of the Sigil," he answered absently as he placed his palm over the mark on Elana's forehead and murmured something under his breath.

"You know something you're not telling me," Deryx said pointedly.

"And I do so with good reason," Ignotus told him, glancing over at his apprentice, "There are some things that you don't need to know."

"I have a right to know my past," the younger one said.

"And I have a right to keep things from my students," he said firmly, "Besides, it isn't your past. Each time you chose to be reborn, you became a different person. You maintained a few similarities, yes, but each time you lived a different life."

Before Deryx could argue, Elana began to speak in her sleep, "Cain…Where did you go?"

The two magic users looked at one another, silently agreeing on something, before the younger spoke, "He's helping his friends. Who are you to him?"

Elana smiled, her eyes still closed as if she was slumbering, "I'm his mate, Traeia."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Nothingness. That's all that surrounded me, all I could see. Empty, black, nothingness. I couldn't remember who I was, how I got here. Then, it all came rushing back to me as a bright light pierced through the black.

I am Ragnarok, King of the Darkness, Leader of the Lost Darkness Army, the Black Dragon that all fear. I fought two of the fabled Silver Dragons, and two of the legendary Purple Dragons. The first of the Purples I corrupted with darkness, and the first of the Silvers died of his wounds after sealing me away.

The second Purple and Silver. They stood up to me, alongside their allies. They fended me off on multiple occasions before I took their precious loves with me to my castle between realms. They followed me and managed to break the hold I had on their dear ones. The Silver, merely a half-breed, fought me one-on-one and he…killed me? It's a blur, but yes I think he did kill me.

Then where am I? What is that light?

"Ragnarok…" a feminine voice came through the empty silence.

Who is she? How did she get here? What does she want?

"Ragnarok…I offer you another chance at life, a chance at ending the lives of those that have wronged you, so long as you serve me." The voice said, it seemed to be coming from the light.

Why would I agree to that? I serve no one. I am the King of the Darkness! But, what she said proves it. I truly am dead. Wait, she offered me life and the lives of the Purple and Silver ones. Maybe I wouldn't mind serving this mysterious person if I can have my revenge.

"Come to the light, Ragnarok," the voice whispered, "Your foes try to stop me from bringing you back. If you do not hurry, you will lose your chance."

Yes, I must go to the light. I will accept the offer, I will serve you if I may have my revenge. I must move towards the light, to end the lives of all who have wronged me that remain alive. I am Ragnarok, King of the Darkness, Leader of the Lost Darkness Army, the Black Dragon that all fear, and I am the killer of the last of the Silver and Purple Dragons!

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter!

*Several guns are pointed at me while several blades are put to my neck*

Jacy: Eheheheh, maybe I should've thought this through… *rubs back of head*

Wolf: You think?

Jacy: Review to let me know whether you liked this or not!

Wolf: And make sure you put in very graphic detail how much you want to kill him!

To be honest, I REALLY wanted to get this chapter out yesterday but I kinda fell asleep writing it… *sweat drops* so, anyways, Happy Late Fourth of July! (For those that celebrate it, anyways) Here's hoping that you're enjoying your Summer Break as much as I am! (Once again, for those who have it)


	12. Chapter 12: Heralds of the Past

Jacy: Well, Chapter Twelve…

*Several weapons of all different kinds are still pointed at me*

Wolf: Starting the chapter would probably be good…

Jacy: Yeah, Disclaimers first, though…Damn copyright laws…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana belongs to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 12: Heralds of the Past

Rosangela, seeing what had happened, turned to see where the projectile that had hit Kain had come from. With her enhanced vision, she was able to spot a man with dark brown hair and wearing dark clothing. He was holding a sniper rifle and was in the process of moving it away from his shoulder.

Anger overwhelming her common sense, she put down the children she was carrying in a safe spot before taking flight towards the man. Aingeru was unable to catch her in time to stop her and could merely watch as she flew away. He continued to ferry the children to the safe spot while his wife joined the fight.

Rosangela grabbed the man by the collar of his shirt, catching him off-guard and making him drop his gun. She flew up out of reach of any one in the fight below and put the man down on one of the support beams near the ceiling, backpedaling a bit so she was out of his reach as well.

At this point she took a closer look at the man and was surprised at her sudden realization. Although he'd aged since she saw him last, there was no mistaking who the man was by his light-blue eyes. She also recognized the small scar just above his lip. However, she needed to be sure.

"Show me your palms," she told him, glancing down at his right hand. He raised an eyebrow at this, but he did as he was told and lifted his hands and showed her his palms. His left one was normal, as she expected, but his right had what she was hoping. It was a Mark, the Mark of Learning to be exact.

"Daniel…" she murmured, "You're alive…"

"Hello, Rosie," he said, smirking, "it's… good to see you again."

"But, how?" she questioned, "We saw you sacrifice yourself after you got bitten!"

"I was given a second chance," he said nonchalantly, "So long as I served my new masters, Merikh and High Priestess Mara."

"You're being controlled!" she realized, flying closer, "Fight it! You're stronger than them!"

Now that she was closer, Daniel pulled a sword out of the coat he wore and swung it at her. She managed to fly back enough so that the blade just missed her. Afterwards she looked at him in shock at what he'd done.

"No one is stronger than the High Priestess and Lord Merikh," the dark-haired man said coldly, "That is why they still remain alive after fighting Jacy."

"You aren't the man I fell for," she said sadly, "You aren't Sarah's father!"

"F-father?" Daniel echoed, surprised, "What are you talking about?"

"When you, no, when _Daniel _sacrificed himself," Rosangela said softly, "it was after he and I had conceived a child, one he never knew."

The man was silent for a few moments before he let out a gasp of agony and gripped his head as a searing pain shot through it. He managed to stay balanced, but the winged-woman watched him with unhidden shock. And then, as suddenly as he had started, Daniel stopped and looked back at Rosangela. However, this time his gaze was softer and was the way that she remembered.

"I wish I could've known her," he whispered in response. He put his arms out and let himself fall backwards, plummeting to the floor below. Watching in astonishment, the woman dove down to try to catch the man before he hit the floor. She was unable to reach him in time, but he didn't hit the floor directly. Instead, he landed on a wounded wyvern and stabbed it through the skull with his sword. Even so, Rosangela heard a few snapping noises and surmised that his legs were probably broken.

"What are you doing?" she demanded of him as he got to his feet, making her realize that it was the wyvern's bones that had broken and not Daniel's.

"Making up for my wrongs," he said quietly before running off into the crowd of fighting before she could stop him.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain and Gabriel's attacks collided in between them, both of them seeming to cancel out the other. Gabriel had black fire shooting from his maw that was tinged red at the edges while Cain's was blue, like the flames he seemed to be made of, while it was shot through with crimson. Both of them refused to give an inch and some of their excess fire spread off and began to start small fires around the room.

Cain felt himself begin to get pushed back by the power of the attacks, but also noticed that the same was happening to his brother. Turning his determination into strength, Cain began to slowly take a step forward, pushing through the energy pushing him back. Gabriel saw this and tried to do the same, but found that he was only pushed back further.

The flames covering Cain began to get brighter with every step he took, and so did the blazes coming from his mouth. Gabriel watched in shock as they were completely, blindingly white by the time Cain was merely a foot away. Their attacks were pushing against each other in the small gap between them. Before Gabriel could react, Cain reared his head back for a moment and then brought it back and put renewed power into his attack.

The white flames engulfed the green dragon as he let out a roar of agony from the flames that began to burn his body. When Cain finally stopped, Gabriel was no more and all that was left was a pile of ash. Cain let his ability fade and it revealed that his body was covered in burns. Through the burns, however, it could be seen that some of his scales had turned a glistening silver.

The now red-and-silver dragon looked down at the remains of his sibling and quietly said, "I hope the light wiped away the darkness in your heart and that the Ancestors welcome you with open arms, brother."

Cain then turned to look at Arana who had watched the whole fight with her purple eyes wide. She was able to see a change he couldn't; his crimson-red eyes had turned a calm-blue. He began to walk towards her and she quickly got to her feet and into a defensive stance. She tried not to let her emotions come to the surface and managed to keep her face unruffled.

"Don't come any closer," she told him, though she was unable to keep her voice from shaking.

Cain raised an eye-ridge at this, though he did halt his movement, and responded, "Or what?"

"Or-or I'll…" she trailed off as she realized that she had nothing to threaten him with as she was completely exhausted. She tried to think of something, but was unable to. Cain chuckled at this and shook his head, before letting out a groan of pain as he aggravated his wounds.

"Neither of us is in a position to harm each other," he said, looking at her with his now-blue eyes, "and I had no intention to, either."

"Then what to do you _intend _to do?" she asked, narrowing her eyes and getting some of her resolve back at seeing that he was just as injured, if not more, than she.

"Talk," he answered, taking a step closer, "and convince you to join the right side."

"It's a pointless cause," she told him, both of them becoming oblivious to the battle going on around them, "I've joined the _winning _side and I'm not changing my choice."

"I know it's pointless," he replied, continuing forward until they were less than a foot apart, "but I'm still going to try. I owe it to Traeia to try."

"Don't you dare use my sister as an excuse for this," Arana growled, "You want to make Merikh weaker by making me join your side; the _righteous _side."

"I'm not using her as an excuse," Cain argued, "but, even if I was, I would only be using the same one you did when you joined me back when I waged war against the Elders to make the wrong people pay for Traeia's death and my son's apparent, failed attempt at performing the Vredranx Ritual."

"Athkor's alive?" she asked, surprised, "Then he did perform the ritual correctly?"

"No, and he never did perform the Ritual," he told her, turning back to look at the ashes of his brother, "Gabriel killed Traeia and made it look like Athkor tried to use her as a sacrifice for it and failed, when he had actually used both of them for his own."

The black dragoness didn't respond to this and merely turned her gaze to the floor. It took Cain a moment to notice her shaking and he realized she was struggling to hold back tears. He tried to take another step closer and ask her what was wrong so he could comfort her, but she snapped at him before he could.

"Stay back!" she shouted, her eyes full of anger and turned red while there were indeed tears at the corners. He halted in shock at her now-red eyes, but before either of them could do anything else, a wave of energy came from where Mara was finishing up the ritual and knocked them back a bit. It was followed by a burst of blinding light that made everyone in the room look away.

When the light finally faded, Cain looked to where it had originated and was shocked by what he saw. Standing there was a terrifyingly familiar, huge black dragon with blood-red eyes. There was a scar that went all the way around his neck from where Blane had beheaded him. There was a horrifying grin on his face that sent fear through everyone in the room except for Mara, who was standing beside the resurrected dragon.

"Ragnarok…" Cain whispered in astonishment. All eyes in the room were on the massive dragon as he began to let out a dark laugh. His own gaze searched for the purple and silver dragons that had ended his life, but found only Spyro was there. However, he noticed that Malefor was there and standing next to the younger purple dragon and that Cain was appearing to turn silver.

"My revenge begins…" Ragnarok said as he looked over everyone in the room.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"T-Traeia?" Deryx stammered, stunned. Elana smiled and the magic user could feel she was somehow looking at him.

"Deryx, your voice may be deeper but I'd recognize it anywhere," she said, "Do you know how I got here? Last thing I remember was watching over Cain and Athkor with the Ancestors and now I'm here."

Deryx and Ignotus exchanged glances before the older man spoke, "Traeia, do you remember anything…odd from when you were looking over Cain and Athkor?"

"Ignotus," she said, recognizing his voice, "Well, one of the other Ancestors was talking with me, but I'd talked with him often so it wasn't that strange. Though he was talking about maybe choosing to be reborn and he wanted to know what I thought of it."

"What did you tell him?" Deryx questioned urgently.

"I told him that my place was with the Ancestors to wait for Cain and Athkor to eventually join me when it was their time," she answered calmly, "He seemed a bit angry but he didn't say anymore on the topic, though he seemed a bit distracted, as if he was talking to someone else while talking to me."

"Traeia," Deryx said slowly, "You've been reborn into the body of woman who practices Dark Magic. We don't know how longer she'll be unconscious, and right now that's the only reason we're able to talk to you."

"What?" she asked, confused, "But, that doesn't make any sense! I was told you had to choose to be reborn and I don't ever remember doing so!"

"We're trying to figure out what happened, but we need to know _anything _you can remember after that," Ignotus told her.

"I-I can't," she whimpered, shaking her head, "it hurts every time I try!"

Both Deryx and Ignotus came to a realization simultaneously and spoke at the same time, "That's how the Sigil was altered!"

"What?" Traeia-Elana asked, bewildered.

"Long story short, we know how to fix it so you remember what happened to you without it hurting," the older magic user explained before he and his apprentice placed their hands over her head and began to mutter the words to a spell under their breaths.

Just as they were finishing, something none of them wanted to hear was said by Traeia, "She's waking up!"

Then she sat up, knocking their hands away from her and breaking the spell before it was finished. She looked around wildly, trying to figure out where she was. She saw Hunter standing over by a violently-struggling Lilia as well as the two magic users kneeling down next to her and jumped to her feet.

"Where am I?" she demanded, blades made of ice forming in her hands, "Who are all of you?"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Dex, Annabelle, Talea, Cynder, Edarin, and Ixenra made their way through the halls of the temple in search of the Guardians and Kepesk. It was a slow process due to the fact that the Fire General was wounded and had to lean against her mate to walk and stay upright, but they made progress nonetheless. As they were walking, however, all of them felt a dark chill run through their spines and everyone but the younglings recognized the feeling.

"Ragnarok…" the adults all murmured synchronously, looking at one another.

"We've got to find the others, fast!" Cynder said, everyone nodding in agreement.

"I think I can help with that," a new voice that everyone but Annabelle didn't recognize said. They all turned around to see Stardust standing there, grinning.

"Stardust!" Annabelle said excitedly, running over to the Celestial Dragon and hugging him with her wings. The black dragon looked at her in confusion, as though he didn't recognize her.

"Have we met?" he questioned as she let go, "If not, then how do you know my name?"

"Don't you remember?" she asked, cocking her head to the side, "You gave me a message from the future me!"

"I don't recall, but time is a funny thing so it might not have happened yet and might never happen," he responded, closing his onyx eyes, "After all, if that me gave you a message then it changed the past, thus making the future that he came from nonexistent."

Everyone stared at him blankly while Dex managed a, "What?"

"Never mind," Stardust said, shaking his head, "I know where they're keeping the Guardians and Kepesk; follow me."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane, Aidan, and Fera found themselves quickly swarmed by the hordes of monsters they readied themselves to fight. The children they'd been guarding had all been moved to safety, but all the other people that had been protecting them had all been overwhelmed and killed. This left the three of them to fight off the waves of creatures that surrounded them on all sides.

Fera filled the approaching monsters with bullets, though she tried to aim for their heads to conserve ammunition. She occasionally threw in a bone-breaking kick to creatures that came too close and knocked them back into the other beasts. Blane and Aidan had to get close to them to attack so they held the monsters away from their backs while Fera guarded their front.

A particularly large zombie made his way towards Fera and she attempted to hit it in its head like she did the others. The thing was over ten feet tall and covered in muscle, its face horribly disfigured, and it carried a large axe with jagged edges. The bullets pierced its skull, but it still moved forward and she was forced to ignore it for the time being as the other monsters were gaining ground while she was distracted.

Blane, noticing Fera's predicament, turned to Aidan and said, "Your sister's in trouble, can you watch our backs by yourself?"

"I'll be fine," the blue-haired man told him as he shoved back a goblin he was crossing blades with, "Go!"

Blane nodded and hurried over to where Fera was slowly backing up away from the giant zombie that refused to die. She had finally run out of bullets and was trying to reload as quickly as possible while the behemoth of an undead raised its axe and started to bring it down on her. Blane got there just in time to tackle her out of the way and the axe embedded into the ground.

The two landed with Fera on her back and Blane on top of her. The half-dragon lifted himself up off of her and had his hands by her sides, looking down at her with his dark-brown eyes while she looked up at him with her light-green.

"That's twice you've saved my ass, handsome," she said, smiling at him.

"I'm not done yet," he said, pushing her to the side while he rolled to the opposite direction just as the axe came down between them. Blane jumped to his feet, blade in hand, and looked over to where Fera was still lying on the ground, a look of shock on her face, "Three times, now."

The sandy-blonde ran up the axe that was still in the ground and jumped onto the giant zombie's shoulders. The behemoth removed its weapon from the stone floor and threw it at Aidan, who was distracted trying to hold off monsters from all sides. His draconic senses allowed him to hear the axe as it split through the air and he ducked down just as it was about to hit him. The sharp weapon kept going and cleaved right through a large chunk of the creatures in that direction before it got caught in the wall behind them.

Without missing a beat, Aidan got back up and resumed holding off a considerately less amount of monsters. Blane, meanwhile, had his blade around the giant zombie's neck and was pulling it back towards him, trying to behead it. It shook back and forth in an attempt to get him loose, but the half-dragon held fast. He felt the blade sink into the monstrosity's flesh and pulled the sword back with renewed strength.

Fera had gotten back on her feet and was doing her best to keep the beasts from swarming the small circle she, Aidan, Blane, and the giant zombie were in. She had managed to reload her handguns and also grabbed the assault shotgun one of the other people who'd already been killed was using. She placed he her pistols back in their holsters and began to use the shotgun to blast the creatures away.

Blane had managed to cut about a third of the way through the giant zombie's head when he started to lose his grip from the way the undead was thrashing. He gritted his teeth and pulled back harder, unconsciously growing his draconic features. His horns grew once more and his nails became claws again while his wings ripped through his back, his tail through his pants, and his teeth became fangs. Silver scales began to form on his skin on his arms and parts of his face just as he realized what was happening. Using it to his advantage, the half-dragon stabbed his tail-blade into the zombie's gut and he lit his sword on white fire.

"Die!" he shouted as the flames began to spread onto the undead creature's head.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: I hope no one wants to kill me now…

Wolf: Maybe now you'll actually get some more reviews than the twelve you already have.

Jacy: I just realized something…

Wolf: What?

Jacy: I have twelve chapters _and _twelve reviews!

Wolf: Yeah…

Jacy: Anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed reading this and that you'll leave me a review to inspire me to write more!


	13. Chapter 13: Elemental Obliteration

Jacy: Happy now that you get to make an appearance again?

Wolf: Very. Hurry up and start it!

Jacy: Alright, alright, sheesh.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 13: Elemental Obliteration

"_Soldier! On your feet!" A familiar voice echoed through the whiteness that was all Kain could see. He looked around in search of the person it belonged to before his eyes zoned in on a figure that was walking towards him. Kain was confused as to how the man was walking while he himself was floating as if in water._

_The man came to a stop just in front of the young man who looked so much like Blane and he was able to recognize who it was. His brown hair was buzzed down and his dark chocolate eyes looked down at him with disapproval, yet also with concern. He, too, wore dark camouflage similar to what Kain wore, though his had a black eagle patch on his right breast pocket._

"_I said, on your feet, soldier!" the man repeated, offering his hand down to help the former Creation Marked One up. He reached for it, but his hand passed right through it like he was made of smoke._

"_Theodore…" Kain whispered, not even noticing his hand had gone through his previous CO's, "You, __**we**__, died. Everyone in our team was gunned down. How are you here?"_

"_You were given another chance at life, Major Zaron," Theodore said, his hand still outstretched, "but it was taken away again, once more by a sniper's bullet. Unless you manage to get your ass up!"_

_Kain chuckled at this, though it was weak. Even though it'd been long, so __**very**__ long, since he'd last spoken to his friend, General Theodore Brand, he hadn't changed at all. The memory of the day he and all the members of his unit perished was burned into his mind, a horrible memory, but he still didn't wish he could forget it. Theodore had said those eight words that day, too, and it was what cost his friend his life._

"_Theo, what's it like? Being dead, I mean," he asked, curious._

_General Brand chuckled, "Nowhere near as thrilling as being alive, especially when there's someone waiting for you."_

_Realization flooded Kain's senses and he whispered, "Hanna…"_

"_Don't keep her waiting, Kain," Theodore said softly, "Take my hand and get to your feet."_

_The black-haired man didn't speak, only once again reached for his friend's hands. He was full of determination to spit in the face of Death once again and return to the land of the living. Where Hanna was waiting for him to likely slap him for scaring her before kissing him, again, and he sure as hell wasn't passing that up. Kain's hand made contact with Theodore's and the larger man pulled him to his feet._

_A glow began to encompass Kain's vision and he could see his friend and CO fading from view, though he spoke before Kain could no longer see him or anything, "Watch her closely, Zaron, for the darkness will try to claim her. Only you can keep her from falling to its temptations."_

_And then all he could see was white._

…

..n…

…ain…

"Kain!" Hanna shouted at Kain's lifeless form as she tried to stop the bleeding from the hole in his chest. Tears were streaming down her pale face as she looked down at the unmoving form of the one she loved. She fought the urge to pound on his chest as she knew it wouldn't do any good. Just as she was about to give up and lay her head down against the man's chest, she heard him let out a groan.

"Remind me never to get shot again," he muttered, opening his red eyes to look up at her face, "Were you crying over me?"

She didn't say a word, just slapped him, hard, before pulling him into a hard, forceful kiss before the pain could register. _'That's one for me,'_ he thought to himself, chuckling, before the pain from the hole in his chest hit him and he let out a hiss, pulling away from her.

"If it's this sore now, I can't even imagine what it'll be like tomorrow," he joked through gritted teeth, "You wouldn't happen to have something I can bandage it with, do you?"

She frowned, unhappy of him making light about nearly dying, but still undid his belt and slid it off him and then took the cloth she'd been using to clot his wound and tore it in two. She helped him sit up before bunching up the pieces of cloth and placing them on either side the hole in his chest before using the belt to hold them in place, pleased that it was long enough to do so.

"I'm glad you never grew out of wearing a tourniquet," Hanna told him, helping him up to his feet, "This would've been a lot harder to do without one."

"Old habits die hard," he chuckled, one arm over her shoulder so he could distribute his weight a little more, "and so do I, apparently."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Dex, Annabelle, Talea, Cynder, Edarin, and Ixenra followed the child-looking black dragon as he led them through the halls and down several flights of stairs. When he finally stopped, they stood in front of a large archway that seemed to enter into a dungeon. Stardust turned around to look at the group with a serious look on his face.

"I don't think the younglings should come any further," he said softly, "There are things in there…that aren't very pleasant."

Dex and little Annie shivered at all the things their imaginations created and Talea cooed softly to comfort them. They huddled up to her and she held them close, which made them feel safer.

"I'll stay here with them," the blue dragoness offered, "Someone ought to."

The others nodded in agreement before turning back to face the ominous darkness that were the dungeons of the temple. They all knew that this was where some of the worst people in all of history, and more recently where some of the wounded dragons and those of the other races aiding them had fled to recover from trying to protect the temple. And after hearing what Stardust had said, none of them were sure they were prepared for what could lay inside.

"If anyone else wants to stay," the onyx-eyed dragon spoke quietly, "Now's the chance to say so."

Despite their resignations, none said a word and the Celestial Dragon noted their courage, as well as Talea's willingness to stay back despite having just as much courage as the others. He knew that she was not afraid of continuing and that's what kept her back, as well as to watch the younglings. He turned to face forward and used his ability to control Space to lift a torch from where it hung on the wall and made it float out in front of him.

"Follow me," he said, turning around to peer into the darkness, "and no matter what you see, _don't _try to help anyone but the Guardians and Kepesk."

"There are people still alive in there?" Edarin asked quietly, surprised, "Then why the hell shouldn't we help them?"

"Because they're not really there," he told them, walking forward into the gloom, "They're shadows and trying to help them is useless and could cause unforeseen problems."

"Like what?" Cynder asked as she and the others, besides Talea and the younglings, followed the black dragon.

"You could bring something back that you don't mean to," he answered as they walked forward, "Like the things that killed all of them."

As he finished speaking the entire room was lit up with ghostly blue light by the torches all around the room, including the one Stardust held aloft in the air using his element of Space, catching fire with flames of that color. The glow revealed a horrifying scene to all of them. All around them were scenes of transparent figures of all the races being brutally tortured and killed in gruesome ways, splattering blood all over the room. Oddly enough, though, there was a straight path between all of them.

"Dear Ancestors…" Edarin murmured as he and all the others looked at the scenes unfolding around them with repulsion, "What…when did these people die?"

"All throughout the existence of the Dragon Realms," Stardust answered quietly, "and they will continue to until the end of time."

"Can't we do anything for them?" Cynder asked, her voice shaking. Before Stardust could respond there was a huge blast of blue lightning that arced just over them and hit a cloaked Death's Embrace member that none of them had noticed after he stepped out of the shadows. All of them looked to where the bolt had come from to see a shocking sight.

Leading the severely injured Terrador, Volteer, Cyril, and Kepesk was a blue dragon with a yellow underbelly and wing membranes. His horns resembled Spyro's but angled more towards his yellow, lightning bolt shaped tail than the purple dragon's own. His yellowish eyes looked over the other group with scrutiny before relaxing after recognizing all of them but Stardust. He wore braces on his hind legs that looked to be made of some sort of yellow crystal that were glowing slightly.

"Never thought I'd meet the mates of the Legendary Purple and Silver Dragons," the blue dragon said, smirking, "Nor the other Generals, either."

"And you would be?" Stardust asked, taking a step forward. He wasn't surprised that the dragon didn't know who he was; no one did, really, but it didn't mean it didn't irritate him a bit.

"Azimuth," the blue dragon responded, "and you are?"

"Stardust," the onyx dragon told him, puffing his chest out a bit, "The _Celestial _Dragon."

"Never heard of you," Azimuth said honestly.

"Then I've been doing my job well," Stardust said quietly.

xXxXxXxXxXx

All the Death's Embrace members stepped away from whoever they were fighting after shoving them toward the center of the room, leaving Spyro, Malefor, Cain, Arana, Arcaein, Nite, Fian, and Serenity standing there by themselves. They all turned to watch as Ragnarok began to walk towards them. Cain stepped in front of Arana protectively, also stepping out in front of the others at the same time, gritting his teeth as he aggravated his wounds again by doing so.

"Stop trying to protect me!" she yelled at the red-and-silver dragon, "He's after all of you, not me, anyways!"

"Oh no," Ragnarok said, grinning maliciously, "You _all _die."

"What?" she asked, shocked, turning to look at the High Priestess, "Tell him not to kill me, Mara!"

"No can do, sweetheart," the violet-haired woman said, "You've been giving the Survivors information, Merikh wants you dead as well."

Cain glanced back at the black dragoness to see that her eyes had widened in shock. He, too, was a bit surprised to hear that Arana had been going against her new, 'so-called,' master, after she'd spoken so highly of him, but he didn't say anything about it out loud.

"If you want them," he said, his now-blue eyes full of protectiveness toward everyone behind him, including Arana, "you'll have to go through first."

"How noble of you," Ragnarok complimented as he came to a stop in front of the red-turning-silver dragon, "Sacrificing yourself in the futile attempt to defend your friends, even if they'll only live for a few moments more."

"We'll live a lot longer than you will," Spyro said, stepping up to stand beside Cain. Malefor followed after him silently and stopped at the other Purple Dragon's side. Nite and Arcaein tried to step forward to stand there as well, but Fian put his arms out in front of them to stop them, shaking his head. He knew that all three of them were far too tired, as well as injured, to be of any help. The two dragons glanced at him, seeing that his eyes were locked onto the scene before him and moved their gazes to do the same.

"Ah, the Purple Dragons," Ragnarok said, grinning maliciously, "The ones who walk a narrow path between Good and Evil, and are so easily swayed to either side. Malefor, the Purple who was corrupted and fell from grace before trying to destroy the world. Spyro, the Purple who stopped the so-called Dark Master from destroying the world and is now forever immortalized in the passage of history."

Both Purple Dragons glared at the black dragon that towered over both of them while Cain did the same. Ragnarok merely chuckled and looked past the three of them and locked his eyes onto the young hazel dragoness, Serenity. She had fear in her eyes and the red-eyed dragon licked his lips hungrily, making her hide behind Arcaein to feel safer.

Cain stepped in front of him to block his view, growling, "Don't even fucking dare _thinking _about it you sick bastard."

Ragnarok chuckled darkly, "A little too late to say that, isn't it?"

Cain felt his anger threaten to overwhelm his common sense and had to struggle not to do something stupid. He saw the wicked mirth in the black dragon's eyes and that pushed him over the edge. He ran at Ragnarok, losing himself to his baser instincts to protect the ones he cared about.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Blane's sword finally cut all the way through the giant zombie's head as the flames spread from the blade to engulf the creature's entire body. The head flew through the air and into the crowd of monsters surrounding the him, Fera, and Aidan, the fire catching a lot of them on fire as well. Blane jumped off the zombie as it fell to its knees and landed next to Aidan just as a large Ogre was raising its club to smash him.

Blane brought his blade, still alight with white fire, up to block the strike. He managed to, though the force behind it cracked the ground beneath his feet. He shoved back against the club and the Ogre was pushed back a little bit. Blane and Aidan exchanged a glance before nodding at one another.

Blane grabbed onto the blue-haired man's arm and Aidan did the same before Blane used his strength to throw him at the Ogre. Aidan flew at the man-like monster that had long, thick hair and a connecting beard before he collided with it and impaled his sword between its eyes. It fell back and crushed several other monsters while Aidan stood up and readied himself to keep fighting.

Blane, in the meantime, had taken his place and kept the monsters from attacking them from behind. He sliced through almost every kind of dark creature he'd ever heard or read about, and even some he hadn't. His eyes locked onto one that began to rush towards him, a Goblin with a wicked-looking axe and shield. He grabbed onto the handle of the axe just below the blade and used the grip to flip the green creature behind him on its back. He pulled the axe from the Goblin's own grip and impaled it in its chest, sending black blood splattering from the wound.

He looked up to catch a glimpse of a familiar dragoness landing next to Fera. The green dragoness changed into the even more familiar form of Kera. Something was said between the two that Blane couldn't hear over the sounds of fighting throughout the building. He felt the weight on his back that was Dax jump off and run over to the two of them, where Kera picked her up and held her. He pulled the axe out of the body of the Goblin and brought it back into the face of a black, shadow wolf-like creature with red eyes without even looking back at it and it disappeared with a puff of smoke and ash.

He stood and saw the two sisters look in his direction just as Aidan was flung back at him by a Cyclops he'd been fighting. He caught the blue-haired man and skidded back a few inches from the force of the throw. Aidan looked back at Blane and nodded in thanks as he took a step away from the half-dragon, brushing himself off when his eyes caught sight of his sisters looking over in their direction. He grinned at them before they ran over to the two of them with urgency in their steps.

They came to a stop just in front of them and Kera spoke first, "I've got a plan to stop this before it goes any further. At first I was just looking for Fera, but it'd be even better if you two helped, too."

"Fera was beyond excited to see me," Aidan commented, frowning, "Yet my littlest sister acts as if I never disappeared."

"There isn't time for a happy moment if this is going to work, Aidan," the green-haired woman said softly.

"What do we need to do?" Blane asked, already making his decision.

"We need to put all of our power into one of us and use it to obliterate every dark creature here," Fera said, her sister having already told her the plan.

"How would we know it would just destroy the monsters and not everyone else, too?" Aidan asked.

"That's why I'm glad Blane is here," Kera said, making Aidan arch a brow, "His element is Light, Aidan. He could make it single out only the dark and destroy it."

"So, you're going to give all your power to _me_?" Blane asked, surprised.

"A good portion of it, yes," Kera said, looking at her brother and sister who nodded their agreement, "Hold out your hand, Blane."

The half-dragon did as he was told and brought his arm out in front of him, unable to stop his tail from twitching in nervousness. The other three placed their own on a portion of his and a differently colored glow engulfed each of their arms as the colors flowed into Blane's hand. Before any of them could stop her, Dax placed her paw on his hand as well. Aidan's was a mixture of fiery red and electric blue, while Fera's was just an orangish-red color and little Dax's was a mixture of silver and light-blue, mimicking her eye-colors. Kera's was a leaf-green, like her hair, and the white glow that covered Blane's arm began to become a mixture of all of theirs.

When the three siblings finally removed their hands from Blane's his appearance had changed due to the mixture of elements now flowing through his body. The scales covering his form were now a mixture of orange, silver, green, white, and blue while his horns now had a spiral of orange curling around them. His wing membranes had changed to white with stripes of the same colors of his scales. His eyes were no longer brown, either; instead, they were constantly flashing between orange, blue, white, silver, and green, but both were never the same color. His sword was no longer alight with just white flames, but with flames that were a blend of all the new colors that now covered his form. His sandy-blonde hair was streaked through with the colors as well.

Blane looked at his now form with awe as he asked, "How long before this wears off?"

"I…don't know," Kera admitted as she and her brother and sister panted due to the drain of giving so much of their power to Blane while Dax had passed out, "It's possible it won't; doing this and giving so much of our elements has never been done before."

"Well, there'll be time to find out later," the half-dragon said before he took flight and made his way towards the center of the mall. The three watched him as he flew, praying that Kera's plan worked.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy saw what appeared to be Blane flying to the middle of the mall with his sword alight. But something was…off about him. He was a mixture of color, like a rainbow. Jacy was forced to look away, however, when a particularly pissed-off snake-man lunged at him. He deflected its blade with _Life _and then impaled it through the chest with _Energy_ before flinging its now electrically-charged corpse at the crowd of monsters in front of him. The body collided with them and sent the charge through all of them, electrocuting them and clearing the path for him to see Wolf fending off another group of monsters.

He ran over to amber-eyed canine and took up a stance next to him, though facing the opposite direction. Wolf glanced at the brown-haired man out of the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything as he returned his gaze back to the monsters in front of him. Before either of them could do anything, however, a bright glow came from the direction of where Blane had been heading.

The two turned to look and saw the half-dragon was inside of a ball made up of energy. It was colored like he was; a mixture of orange, white, silver, blue, green, and red. They watched in shock as the sphere began to grow in size and eventually reached the floor.

"What the hell is he doing?" Wolf asked.

"The better question is _how _he is doing _that_," Jacy responded quietly as he watched the ball begin to obliterate all the foes that had attacked them. They noticed that all the monsters had stopped at had begun to watch the sphere as well instead of doing the smart thing and running. The two began to wonder if they were in danger from it as well, but before they could decide whether to seek shelter or not, it had reached them. It passed harmlessly through them, but destroyed the creatures around them like it did the others. Inside the dome-like energy ball, they felt themselves get rejuvenated and noticed their wounds healing.

"That's why she wanted to find her sister…" Jacy said to himself as he watched a long gash on his arm mending, "She wanted to give her power to someone in the hopes of doing something like this. But, if orange and green are Kera and Fera and white is Blane…whose powers are blue, red, and silver?"

"I have no idea," Wolf said, even though he knew Jacy was speaking to himself, "But I don't think this would've worked near as well without them."

xXxXxXxXxXx

There you have it, Chapter 13! Also, to Shining Darkness Dragon, I hope you're pleased with how I finally managed to work in Azimuth and I think I got his personality right. If not, feel free to tell me and I'll do my best to correct it. The same goes for the other people who are letting me use their OCs.

Anyways, knowing probably no one read this anyways, this is Jacy, ending the chapter with a bang!

*Pulls out a detonator and presses the button, causing a series of explosions to blow up a building marked for demolition*

I've always wanted to do that…


	14. Chapter 14: Sorrowful Goodbyes

Jacy: I'm fairly certain that this is the longest chapter I've ever written and I'm not going to delay you from reading it.

Wolf: I don't think they even read these things to begin with…

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

IMPORTANT NOTICE AT THE BOTTOM A/N!

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 14: Sorrowful Goodbyes

Merikh watched as all the figurines of his army turned to dust in front of him. He cocked his head to the side, as if he was confused, before brushing it all away and let his gaze fall on the figurine in the middle of the board. It looked like Blane, but was slowly draining of all color, even the ones that the Destruction Marked One had seen him suddenly gain.

He reached for the statuette just as a hesitant voice spoke out from behind him, "M-master Merikh, sir? I-I have a-a message f-from H-High P-Priestess M-Mara."

Merikh turned around slowly to look at a trembling young man with gray eyes. The scarred man recognized him as one of the vampires that had signed onto his cause with the promise of an entire continent full of humans to themselves to feast on. This one was one of the newly-turned, a fledgling if Merikh remembered the blood-drinkers' terminology correctly, and was still a little wet behind the ears.

"What is her message?" he asked calmly, but that didn't do anything to comfort the vampire.

"S-she said that she isn't coming back," he told him, making Merikh narrow his eyes, "a-and that she's going to claim that realm f-for her and the r-rest of D-Death's E-Embrace."

"Is she now?" Merikh asked slowly, getting to his feet. He was nearly seven feet tall when he was standing and this made the shaking vampire shiver even more. He walked over to him leisurely, each step of his black boots making an echo that went through the entire room. Merikh came to a stop in front of the brown-haired blood-drinker and looked down at him before saying, "She just sent a message saying 'I quit'?"

"I-i-it s-s-seems th-that w-way," he said nervously, looking away from his master's scorching red eyes. Without even a change in the calm look on his face, Merikh picked up the vampire by his throat and help him up against the stone wall. The man's gray eyes widened as this happened and he instinctively began to gasp for the air he no longer needed.

"Then it seems I have to send someone to tell her that she can't just 'quit', doesn't it?" he said, his voice sounding almost tired.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy and Wolf watched as the sphere that had engulfed them extended until it covered the entire mall, inside and out. The colors inside the ball were making everything appear oddly-shaded for a moment before the two noticed that it was beginning to shrink again. They turned to look at Blane and even from the distance they could tell that he was panting from the exertion of doing what he'd done. The color, all color, was draining from him and leaving him white, making Jacy realize what was happening.

"He's used up all of his energy…" the brown-haired Creation Marked One murmured, taking slow steps toward the half-dragon before breaking into a full-out sprint with Wolf at his heels, "He's dying!"

"Why?" the canine asked as he jumped over the body of a man whose disemboweled organs were being pulled back into his body with the gash beginning to heal over, "Shouldn't he have all that extra energy he got from your girlfriend and whoever else helped?"

"Even all that was used up, and now he's using up his own life force to try to keep it up," Jacy explained as they reached just under where Blane was hovering, "It's killing him, but he doesn't know it!"

Before either of them could say anything more, the sphere shattered and Blane began to fall down towards them. Jacy placed himself where he believed he would land on the ground and braced himself to hold the weight of the half-dragon and keep him from hitting the floor. He managed to catch him, but the weight knocked him down and he held the scaled man's torso and head above the ground with his head in his arms and his shoulder against his own chest.

"J-Jacy?" Blane asked, his voice hardly above a whisper. His eyes had settled on a blue so light they were almost white and they were barely open.

"Hey, Blane?" Jacy asked, smiling weakly with tears at the corner of his eyes, "How've you been? How're Dextran and Talea?"

"I've been better, and when I left the two of them were doing fine," Blane chuckled feebly, looking up at his friend, "I'm dying, aren't I?"

"No, no you're not," Jacy told him firmly, holding back his tears and sniffling slightly, "I'm not going to let you."

"I spent five years with you, Jace," Blane said, shaking his head slowly, "I know when you're lying and I know how your abilities work. You can only bring someone back once, after that they're dead no matter what you do. Kera's abilities can't help either, she can only revive people who died in battle."

"Stop talking!" Jacy shouted, his voice cracking as tears began to stream down his face, "Save your strength. Fight for your life, don't leave Dextran without a father or Talea without a mate!"

A crowd had begun to form around the two of them, with familiar faces being the closest. Kain, Hanna, Kera, Aidan, Fera, Marie, Acelan, Smoke, Wolf, and everyone else watched in sorrowful silence as they saw the hero they were expecting lying there dying and the hero that brought them all together and gave them hope falling apart as he held him. Wolf let out a mournful howl in instinct of the sight, and every person felt their hearts doing the same.

"Jacy…" Kera murmured softly, taking a step towards her now-fiancé, "I'm sorry, so sorry. I shouldn't have let him do it, I shouldn't have even suggested it! I—"

"I would've done it anyways and you know it," Blane said softly, looking over at the green-haired woman with his half-lidded eyes, "Don't blame yourself."

"I told you to stop talking," Jacy said, looking at him, "I WILL find a way to help you."

"Well, there is…one thing that could work," Aidan said slowly, taking a few steps forward to stand next to his sister. Everyone turned their gazes to him, though Jacy's moved the fastest. Aidan continued to speak sluggishly, "It's risky, and some people even claim it's just a myth, but…"

"Just spit it out, man!" Jacy shouted, not in the mood to wait.

"A lost relic, one of the many Forgotten Ones' relics, before they became the mindless beasts they are now," Aidan explained, walking over to the Creation Marked One and kneeled down next to him, "It's called the Dragon's Claw."

"It's just a story, Aidan," Kera hissed at him, "Don't give them false hope!"

"Last time I checked, so was your boyfriend and the bastard who bent all of those dark creatures to his will, Ke-Ke," Aidan said, using her old childhood nickname just to annoy her into shutting up, "but I know it's not a story."

"How do you know, Ai-Ai?" Fera asked, annoying the blue-haired man for their sister.

"_Because_, dear sister," Aidan said, making his right hand shift into a dragon-like paw to reveal that his middle claw was crimson with blue and green twirling around it, "I found it while looking for the Temporal Marked One."

"What does it do, exactly?" Jacy asked, still a bit lost.

"It acts as a transfer for energy, using the wielder like a battery, though," Aidan said, looking at the claw, "And with how much of his life force he burned up, it looks like he'll be draining all of mine."

"NO!" Fera and Kera said simultaneously before the green-haired sister kept going, "We just got you back, we can't lose you again!"

"You didn't let me finish, you two never do," Aidan said, shaking his head, "While drains the wielder like a battery, a _rechargeable _battery."

"So, if everyone here gave you energy," Marie said hypothetically.

"Then it would transfer into our dying friend, there," Aidan said, turning around to look at the crowd as he motioned to Blane, "Though he'd likely gain a small bit of everyone who donated, but that little bit of bad is far outweighed by the good."

Everyone walked closer until the people in the front could lay a hand on Aidan and everyone behind them placed a hand on their shoulders all the way to the back. Aidan felt a hand gasp his right arm and saw Jacy was the one it belonged to. He knew that Jacy would be giving far more than anyone else, due to where his hand was as well how much he blamed himself, but didn't speak a word of it. Instead, he placed the tip of the claw onto Blane's head and felt the energy from everyone begin to pour through him and into the dying half-dragon.

Blane's eyes opened wide at the sudden burst of life going through him and this gave everyone a chance to watch in awe as his eyes slowly regained their natural, dark-brown color. His colorless scales recovered their silverish-grey sheen and his wing membranes became black once more. His pale, pallid hair re-claimed its sandy-blonde color. His breath turned from shallow gasps to full, deep breaths and the wounds he'd sustained during the battle began to heal until there were hardly scars left.

And then everyone began to let go as they realized that he needed no more, except Jacy who also prevented Aidan from letting go. A golden aura tinged with jade-green began to cover the Creation Marked One's entire form and Aidan found that the claw began to burn where it was attached to his paw/hand. He had to struggle for a moment before he was able to pry his hand free of the half-dragon's forehead and the glow faded from Jacy's body, showing that he had given far more than even Aidan had expected as he passed out a moment after. Blane was able to keep his head from hitting the ground with his quick reaction, no one noticing the glimmering that came from his left shoulder for a moment before it disappeared.

"Why did he do that? I was fine!" Blane demanded as Kera took her fiancé's weight and laid his head in her lap.

"He felt like he owed you after all he put you through," she said quietly, brushing a few stray hairs out of her love's face, "even though he knew you were fine. He gave you a part of himself, a part of his very being. And with it…"

She trailed off and Blane realized what she was going to say. He began to roll up his left sleeve to reveal that there was a Mark, similar to Jacy's Creation Mark, burned onto his arm. It wasn't colored like the unconscious brown-haired man's, and there was something more to his. The only color to his was a pair of dragons that were making up the spiral, there were a pale blue and silverish gray.

"A part of his ability," he said in awe, looking up from it to Kera, "but doesn't this mean he's weaker?"

"Not at all," Fera said, kneeling beside the half-dragon, "He'll be back to full strength when he wakes up, and you're almost as strong as him with it now, too. But yours is a bit different than his, I noticed."

"Yeah, why is that?" Blane asked, confused.

"Each Mark, no matter what kind, always has a special meaning to the one who has it," Kera explained, not looking up from where her gaze was on Jacy, "His is a spiral to represent the struggle that he went through to get where he is today, yours is you and Talea because…"

"She's the one I died the first time for, and would gladly do again," the half-dragon said, sounding as if he just realized it himself.

"And she plays a key role through all the struggles you've faced, or will face, in your entire life," Aidan said, "And no, we can't tell you how we know this."

"Then tell me this," Blane said, getting to his feet and shuffling his wings to get the blood flowing in them again, "Where does this Merikh live? 'Cause I want to pay him a little visit and introduce myself."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Stardust and Azimuth had a stare down for a few moments before one of the Guardians spoke up, specifically Terrador.

"Can this be held off until we get out of these cursed dungeons?" he asked in his deep, baritone voice. This seemed to snap the two out of whatever trance they seemed to be in and Stardust spoke up first.

"Right, yes, right," he said, turning around to lead everyone out of the dungeons, "This way, before someone does something stupid."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Cynder asked indignantly, as though he was specifically talking about her.

"Nothing, but everyone seems to do something stupid around me," the onyx-eyed dragon said calmly just as he heard a deep growling from behind him. He turned around to see a pale-blue wyvern the size of a small elephant backing Azimuth, the Guardians, and Kepesk into a corner. Stardust groaned, "Like that."

He reached out to it with his control of Space to crush it into nothing, but found his ability went right through the ghost of a beast. His eyes widened in shock at this realization and he tried to freeze it in Time, but found it useless as well. It was as if the creature was there and wasn't there at the same time, like it was still a…

"Ghost!" he shouted, making everyone turn their attention to him, "It's a ghost, probably playing out a piece of the past, you can run through it and it wouldn't even know it!"

"How do you know that?" Azimuth demanded as he and the dragons he was trying to rescue backed further into the corner, "The thing looks pretty solid from where I'm standing!"

"You just have to trust me on this!" the black dragon told him urgently, looking into the dragon's yellow eyes. The blue dragon paused for a moment as he saw something…familiar in the Celestial Dragon's eyes before nodding and motioning for the Guardians and Kepesk to follow him. The four older dragons bowed their heads in agreement before all of them turned to look at the overgrown wyvern with determination before the five of them ran at the beast after a moment. Just as they were about to hit the creature, they passed through it just as Stardust said they would.

"Don't stop until you get through the entrance!" he called to them as they began to slow, only to speed up again after he spoke, "You'll find Talea waiting there with her son and Cynder's daughter!"

The group did as he said and the onyx-eyed dragon motioned with his head for his own group to follow before he took off after the others. The other three tailed after him at their own speeds, Ixenra and Edarin being the slowest due to the fire dragoness's injuries, but they all reached the entrance without getting bothered by any of the spirits. When they went through it, the apparitions faded and all the blue-flamed torches went out, leaving the dungeons dark once again.

"Now," Stardust said, turning to look at Azimuth and his group, "Who tried to mess with one of the ghosts?"

"You said it was playing out a piece of the past!" the blue dragon said defensively, stepping towards the child-looking onyx dragon.

"It was focused on one of you in that piece of the past, and I have a hunch you tried to help one of the spirits so it focused the past onto you," he said, shuffling his over-sized wings indifferently, "And with how defensive you're being, I think it was you who tried to do something."

The room was silent for a moment before Talea broke it by speaking, "Can this wait? I think getting everyone to safety is higher on the to-do list than figuring out whatever happened in there."

Stardust wanted to disagree, but relented and nodded his agreement, "Fine, but this isn't getting forgotten."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Rosangela held Daniel's head in her arms and his torso on her lap as she knelt on the ground, rocking him back and forth. The resurrected Learning Marked One's body was slowly turning to dust from his feet up as the sphere of elements that Blane had unleashed had made the dark spell keeping him alive start to fail. He was returning to death, and, once again, there would be nothing left to bury. He reached a hand up to weakly stroke her cheek and she brought her own hand to hold his in hers.

"What does she look like?" he asked softly, looking up at the winged woman with his light-blue gaze.

"She's got your eyes," she whispered, rubbing his hand that still rested against her cheek with her thumb and smiling sadly, "And my hair. She's a little shy, kinda like you before you became the leader of our little survivor group before we met Jacy's. She sometimes hugs your old teddy bear like her life depends on it."

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for her, or you," Daniel said, quietly, "but I'm glad you found someone that cares for you like I do, and always will."

His gaze had moved behind her where Aingeru stood there, holding Sarah. She was looking at him with the same eyes that looked at her, though hers were a lot wider. Just like Rosangela had said, she was clutching onto the teddy for dear life, and partially hiding her face with it. Rosangela turned her head to where Daniel was looking just as Aingeru placed Sarah down on her feet.

"Sarah, sweetie," the black-haired woman said gently, holding her hand out to her daughter, "Come here, there's someone I want you to meet."

The little girl slowly walked over to her mother and, even though she didn't know it, her father as well. She took her Rosangela's hand when she reached her and the winged woman moved her hand to the dying Learning Marked One's chest.

"Sarah, this is Daniel Grady," Rosangela said softly, smiling at her daughter with tears streaming down her cheeks, "He's your daddy."

"Daddy?" she whispered, looking down at Daniel with her eyes wide, "Then who's the other winged man?"

"He's your daddy, too," Daniel said feebly, "but I was here when your mommy and I decided to have you."

Sarah sniffled as tears formed at the corner of her eyes and her hand bunched up her father's shirt. Tears from both mother and daughter began to fall onto Daniel's shirt as his waist turned to dust. Aingeru walked over to the three, having stayed back to honor the father of his adopted daughter and his wife's old love.

"Aingeru," Daniel said faintly, looking up at the silver-haired man, "Thank you for being there for the both of them and I ask you to remain with them for me."

"I wouldn't," Aingeru said softly, kneeling down next to him, "I may not be able to take your place in either of their hearts, but I will do my best to try."

"Thank you, my friend," he said, nodding as his hands and chest began to turn to dust, "it's time for me to die again. But, at least this time, I get a chance to say goodbye."

"I love you, Daniel," Rosangela whispered, "I never forgot about you, and I still won't."

"Daddy," Sarah whimpered as Daniel's neck began to turn to dust, "Don't go."

"Sweetheart," he said, smiling weakly, "I'll always be with you, in your mind and in your heart."

And just as he finished, his head turned to dust as well, leaving nothing but the dark clothing he'd been wearing. Aingeru wrapped his arms around the shoulders of his wife and adopted daughter as they both continued to sob. He, too, had tears going down his face as he saw one of his best friends die right in front of him again.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cain hit Ragnarok and the two of them began to roll and claw at each other in reaction. Everyone else watched in stunned silence as the two began their struggle, the only thing they did was take several steps back to give the two dragons room to brawl it out. Claws ripped into scale and flesh, sending crimson blood splattering all over the floor. Roars of pain and fury echoed throughout the room and the temple as the fight went on.

Despite his previous injuries, Cain fought as though he was fully refreshed and ready to fight. His blue eyes glinted as blood flew by his face, both his own and Ragnarok's, and his ivory claws were stained with the liquid from the large black dragon. He and the darkness dragon separated and began to circle around one another after what seemed like hours, but was only a few minutes.

Both of them had a variety of wounds that made both of them weaker than when the fight had started. Cain was limping as there was a chunk of flesh missing from his right foreleg and there was a large gash over Ragnarok's left eye that bled down and made him close it to keep the crimson liquid out. There were several bites on both dragons' necks that bled and the black dragon had a long gash down his back that also seeped the fluid.

"You may have somehow gained the power of a Light Dragon, but you're nothing like the two that I've already fought," Ragnarok taunted him, spitting out blood.

"You're right, I'm nothing like any Light Dragon you've ever seen," Cain chuckled, his blue eyes seeming to be full of fire, "Because I'm a Fire Dragon with the power of one!"

He let loose a blast of white fire at the darkness dragon while he also charged at him full speed. Ragnarok let loose a blast of shadow fire to counter the Fire-Dragon-turned-Light-Dragon's attack only to find himself impaled through the throat with Cain's horns. Blood began to leak out from the holes from around the horns as Cain began to pull them loose. Once he did, he looked at Ragnarok as he began to choke on his own blood.

"That's three times you've been beaten by a Light Dragon," the red-and-silver dragon said, taking a step back from the dying dragon, "I suggest you stop messing with them."

"You may have killed me," Ragnarok gurgled, making the blood from his throat spatter out a bit, "but you all will still die."

The dark dragon's body began to glow with a dark, ethereal light and Cain's eyes widened in shock. All the others began to back away from the perishing dragon as they all got a sense of unease. Cain turned to look at the ones he'd been protecting with wide-eyed shock apparent on his face.

"He's building up energy inside his own body," he said, "He's going to blow up the whole temple! Run!"

Everyone did as they told, until the only people left in the room were the Death's Embrace members, the about-to-explode Ragnarok, Cain, and the two Purple Dragons. Cain knew that the Death's Embrace members had recognized their failure and welcomed their deaths, but he was confused as to why Malefor and Spyro were still there.

"Why didn't you two run?" he demanded, looking back and forth between the two.

"The same reason you're still here," Malefor told him, "We're not going to let the temple just get destroyed."

"We're going to stop it, or at least contain it," Spyro said, nodding.

"I'm not going to let you two risk your lives!" Cain told them angrily, "Malefor, you need to show everyone that you aren't the Dark Master. And Spyro, you have a family; you can't just abandon them!"

"What about you?" the older Purple Dragon asked, "What makes you less than us that you should?"

"Well…" the new Light Dragon trailed off.

"There seemed to be something between you and that one dragoness, Arana," Spyro added, "Which means you have someone that's waiting for you, too."

"I don't know if you noticed," Cain chuckled, shaking his head, "She's not all that fond of me. 'Sides, I'm nowhere as important as two Purple Dragons."

"Cain—" the younger of the Purple Dragons began to argue, but his elder cut him off.

"He's right, Spyro," Malefor agreed, "Two Purple Dragons are more important than one new Light Dragon."

"But—" Spyro tried to say, but Malefor cut him off again.

"_But_, he's not as important as one Purple Dragon with a past so dark that he won't ever be accepted into society," he continued before he placed a wing on either dragon and they began to glow with purple light, "So I'm sending the both of you outside with the others."

"Malef—" Cain tried to speak but he and Spyro vanished before he could finish. Malefor began to walk towards Ragnarok, who was beginning to swell with the amount of energy contained within his body.

"You won't take any more lives," the Purple Dragon whispered to him as a purple sphere began to come out of him and cover the entire room, stopping at the doorway.

"You'll give up your life to save those who were once your enemies?" Mara asked from where stood on the platform in front of him. He turned his blue eyes to look at the High Priestess who spoke again, "Why?"

"They were never my enemies," he answered her, "They set me free. They are my saviors, my rescuers. My…friends."

"Friends…" Mara murmured, looking down as her eyes became green around the middle, "I forgot what it's like to have friends…And now I'll die without remembering how it feels, instead all I have is loneliness."

"I'll be your friend, Mara," Malefor said kindly, making the woman look at him in surprise, "That way, we can both die with our wishes fulfilled."

"I…thank you," she said, smiling as Ragnarok's body began to rip apart from the buildup of so much energy without release.

"You're welcome," the Purple Dragon responded with a smile of his own just as the black dragon exploded, incinerating everyone inside the room and eventually breaking the purple sphere of energy. However, it had taken so much of the power to shatter it that all that happened was the wall exploded outward.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"—or!" Cain finished as he reappeared next Spyro out in the temple courtyard. He looked around and saw that Hunter and Deryx were trying to subdue a conscious Elana while a struggling Lilia egged the younger Death's Embrace member on. They then heard running from behind them and turned to see a large group of dragons running out of the temple, most of them recognizable as the ones they had gone in to rescue and the ones that also went in to do the same. They all came to a halt in front of the two just as an explosion rang out and they all looked up to see that the room that Cain and Spyro had been in previously had been blown to pieces.

"Spyro!" Cynder shouted running over to her mate with their daughter at her heels. She nuzzled him under his head while his gaze was still locked onto the unnatural fire that was beginning burn the temple. She took her head from under his and spoke, "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Where's Malefor?" Talea questioned as she walked over to Cain and Spyro. Neither of them responded, only continued to watch the flames. Eyes widening in realization, the blue dragoness spun around, nearly causing Dextran, who was lying on her back, to fly off and she gasped, "Oh no…"

"He sacrificed himself to contain the explosion," Spyro said finally, still looking at the fire and noticed that it was turning black, "I understand now why I had to trust him. To trust that he'd changed, trust that he'd get here. He died a hero and everyone will remember that although the Dark Master died at the hands of myself and Cynder, Malefor died to save the temple and everyone still in it."

"One couldn't ask for a more honorable death than to protect the lives of others," Cain said, unconsciously repeating the dying words of the Elder he'd killed back in his own realm that had battled him alone so that the others could escape.

"I wish I had asked him what his life was like before, you know," Spyro said to no one in particular, "Not what the legends say, but what _really _happened through _his _eyes."

"I guess he'll be taking that secret and any others he knew with him to the grave," Cynder said, nuzzling her mate again.

"How long has she been awake?" Cain asked, turning to look at the two humans and lone Avalarian.

"It depends on what you mean by 'awake,'" Deryx said cryptically as he and Hunter finally managed to get some of the spare magic-dampening rope around her wrists after they got them behind her back.

Before Cain could ask what he was talking about, there was a growl from behind him. He turned to see Arana standing there, a look of indecision on her face. The blue-eyed dragon watched her with a calm look and let her take her time before she spoke. After what seemed like an eternity, she did.

"Thank you," she said, though a bit begrudgingly, "for protecting me after everything I did and said."

"You're welcome," Cain said slowly, watching her carefully, "Though it doesn't look like that's all you wanted to say."

"It's not," she said before taking a deep breath and continuing, "I'm going to help you, at least until Merikh's dealt with. After that, I'm going on my own, and no one is going to stop me."

"Alright," the red-and-silver dragon agreed, smirking, "If you still want to at that time, anyways."

xXxXxXxXxXx

So, battles were fought, battles were won, friends were lost, and new developments have happened. What will happen next? Why are you asking me? I make this all up as I go!

Side note: Because of the length of this chapter, as well as the lack of reviews I'm getting, I'm keeping the story hostage until I reach at least 20 reviews.

K bai!


	15. Chapter 15: Memory Lane Pt 1

Jacy: I'm back! Though I'm honestly surprised at how I _still _haven't reached twenty reviews yet. Anyway, mostly filler in this one, really, but lots of backstory and stuffs as well.

Wolf: Plus, this chapter is a herald of things to come.

Kain: Like possible prequels for several characters!

Jacy: But for now, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 15: Memory Lane, Part One

Arcaein watched the black flames lick at the outsides of the temple, knowing that they wouldn't get very far before they burned themselves out. He was proud of Malefor for defeating the darkness that had controlled him for so long and sacrificed his own life to save everyone's, but sad that once again he'd been unable to say good bye to his old friend.

"You always were a hard-headed fool, Mal," the old silver dragon said, shaking his head, "Just like your sister. I hope you both have found peace with the Ancestors."

He could almost see the two of them in the sky as he turned his gaze to the never-ending blue looking back at him; watching over him. He let out a sigh as he recalled all the friends and family he'd lost during his lifetime as well as people he didn't even know, both this one and his first one.

'_How many good and innocent people have I watched die?' _He thought to himself, before answering it almost a moment later, _'Too many.'_

He felt a memory begin to surface, a fond one. The day he'd met Malefor and his twin sister Mina, both of whom became close friends to him, was a day he'd always treasure. Despite Malefor's distrust when they first met, it vanished almost instantly once the Light Dragon had explained a simple misunderstanding. After that, he'd gotten to know the two and found that they had been living on their own for quite a long time before they'd been contacted by the Guardians at the time to come to Warfang. Arcaein and Mina became mates once they got older, and Malefor became the brother he'd never had. It felt like it had happened yesterday to the old dragon…

_**Flashback…**_

_It had been an ordinary day for the fifteen-year-old Arcaein, just walking through the streets of a much more intricately-built Warfang. The city itself was void of almost any damage from attacks and looked more like a work of art rather than a stronghold city. The young light dragon had lived here for nearly seven years, ever since his parents, a pair of fire dragons who'd been shocked when he'd shown himself to be a Light Dragon, had been told by the Guardians to send him to them for training._

_He bore his parents no ill will for sending him away, after all they were still allowed to visit whenever they pleased, for he'd come to love the city and found a home among the other young dragons at the temple. He'd become close to the Electric Guardian, an older dragon by the name of Soren. Despite the dragon's blindness, he was a formidable fighter and teacher, which is why he'd been chosen as the Head Guardian not long after he was appointed as a Guardian._

_It was him who'd given Arcaein the rest of the day off from training, saying he'd been working too hard and deserved a break. After thanking the old dragon so many times he'd lost count, the young Light Dragon had run out of temple so he could simply wander around the city and relax. It was because he was too busy admiring the buildings that he didn't notice a pair of dragons around his age until he bumped into one of them and he and the dragon rolled until they landed with the other one on top of him. Both of them groaning from the new pain in their heads, Arcaein opened his eyes to see that it was a dragoness he'd run into, and a pretty one at that._

"_Sorry," he said, unable to help the redness that colored his cheeks as he realized the position the two of them were in. She seemed to not long after and scrambled to get off his chest, her face even more crimson than his. He took his time getting up off his back to take in her appearance. She was thinner than him, not unhealthily so but lean, and her amethyst-colored eyes were the eyes of one who'd seen horrible things happen in front of them while they were helpless to do anything. Her scales were a pale green and her underbelly and wing membranes a dull gold color. Her horns were an ivory white and shaped like little lightning bolts, while her tail-blade was slim, gold, and dagger-shaped._

"_It's my fault," she said quickly, shaking her head, "I—"_

"_Mina!" a new, deeper voice called and both Arcaein and the dragoness looked over to see that the dragon that had been walking with her had run over to make sure she was alright. As he looked the dragoness over, the Light Dragon took in the newcomer's appearance._

_He was almost as lean as the dragoness, though he had a bit more muscle than she, and was a little bit bigger than her, maybe around Arcaein's size, if not a little bigger. His scales were a deep shade of purple, while his underbelly and wings were the same dull gold-color as the dragoness, his horns the same color as they curved a bit back, hints of two more growing on either side of his face. His tail-blade was actually two, a black blade-like shape on either side of his tail. The young Light Dragon caught a glimpse of his eyes and saw they were light-blue and held the same sadness as the dragoness. It didn't take long for Arcaein to make the connection that the two were related, and with their similarities were likely brother and sister._

_After the new dragon had been satisfied that his companion was unharmed, he turned on the poor Silver Dragon, "You! Who are you? Why did you attack my sister?"_

_The furious Purple Dragon wouldn't listen to his sister's protests that he hadn't attacked her, leaving Arcaein to defend himself, "I—I didn't attack her! I swear I knocked her over by accident!"_

"_Oh," the dragon instantly calmed, as if sensing his truthfulness and grinning sheepishly, "Sorry for snapping at you. It's just…Mina is the only family I have left."_

"_You don't need to yell at everyone who happens to look at me the wrong way, Malefor," the dragoness, Mina, scolded playfully, nudging her brother's shoulder._

"_Are you two new to Warfang?" Arcaein asked, looking back and forth between the two, "I haven't seen you around before now, though I don't get away from training very often so if not then it's not that bad."_

"_Yes, we are new," Mina said, nodding as she mimicked her brother's embarrassed grin, "That's kinda why I ran into you, I was admiring the buildings and not paying attention to where I was walking."_

"_Don't worry, I've lived here for nearly seven years and I still do that," the Light dragon said, a sheepish look forming on his face as well, "It's why __**I **__ran into __**you**__."_

"_Wait, did you say 'training'?" Malefor asked suddenly, causing the other two to turn to look at him, "Then you know where the temple is?"_

"_Yeah," Arcaein nodded before turning his head slightly to the side, "I live there. Why?"_

"_I got a letter from the Guardians asking for me and my sister to come live at the temple," the Purple Dragon explained, "I guess they finally heard about us living as orphans."_

"_You're orphans?" the Silver Dragon asked, surprised, "What happened? Why didn't you come to Warfang immediately?"_

"_I'd…rather not talk about it," Malefor said, looking away while Mina began to sniffle as she held back a flood of tears._

"_Oh, okay," Arcaein said, nodding in understanding, "C'mon, I'll take you guys to the temple so we can let the Guardians know you're here."_

"_Okay," the two siblings said, happy about the subject change. The Light Dragon took off through the city, making his way towards the temple at the center with the two dragons hurrying after him._

_**Flashback End…**_

"Taking a trip down memory lane?" a familiar voice asked and the old Silver Dragon turned to see Kepesk standing there, his wounds covered in a salve that looked like it was made from berries and herbs, likely made by Hunter. He took a seat next to his friend and fellow General while Arcaein nodded slowly.

"I was remembering the first time I met Malefor and Mina," he replied sadly, noticing that the flames had gone out while he'd been lost in the past.

"I remember you telling me about that," the yellow dragon chuckled, "You wouldn't stop saying how _pretty _she was."

"Hey!" the old Light Dragon protested, looking at his comrade, "You thought she was too when you saw her!"

"That may be true," Kepesk agreed, turning to look at Arcaein with his electric-blue eyes, "but _I'm _not the one that ended up with her, was I?"

"No," the Silver Dragon relented, "I was. Ha, look at us! Bickering over a memory, we must be getting old."

"Speak for yourself!" the electric dragon teased, grinning humorously, "I've never felt younger!"

The two burst into laughter at their own small joke, but it died down after a moment and Arcaein spoke once again, "You sound just like Arlyn, I wonder what he'd say if he saw the two of us acting like this."

"Knowing that old water-bug, he'd probably join in," Kepesk sighed, remembering what they'd been told of their friend's fate by Cain and the other's that had gone in to rescue the Generals and Guardians, "Remember when he first came to the temple?"

"And everyone but our little group of four made fun of all his fins?" Arcaein questioned, smiling at the memory, "Yeah, I remember. You, me, and Malefor actually got into fights defending him against everyone else even though we hardly knew him."

"Eventually everyone understood that making fun of Arlyn was grounds for a fight with the top three students in the temple, and an earful from the fourth as well as the Guardians," the electric dragon chuckled, shaking his head, "I've still got a few scars from those fights."

"Me, too," the Silver Dragon said, nodding. It wasn't long before the two of them became lost in the memory of meeting their now-deceased friend.

_**Flashback…**_

"_Ha! Look at the new kid!" a dark red dragon, a well-known bully by everyone in the temple whose name was Dustin, tormented a young blue dragon surrounded by him and his group of friends, "He's got __**fins**__! And he doesn't even have a tail blade!"_

_Most of the room of training dragons and dragonesses burst into laughter at the poor dragon, among those that did not was a well-known group of four. Malefor, Mina, Arcaein, and Kepesk all made their way over to where the group of tormentors had cornered the new student. They came to a stop just behind them and the Light Dragon shouted over the laughter._

"_Hey Dusty!" he yelled, causing the amusement to die down as the group of bullies turned to face the four, "Too afraid to pick on someone smaller than you so you have to have three-to-one odds to feel safe?"_

"_Mind your own business, Pretty Boy," Dustin growled, showing his sharp teeth as he narrowed his dark-green eyes, "Otherwise, you and your little friends might get hurt."_

"_Is that a threat?" Malefor asked, taking a step closer._

"_What if it is, oh Masterful One?" the red dragon prodded, smirking as he used the name that many tormented the dragon with for he was one of the star pupils of the Guardians due to his strange ability to master any element, "What are you going to do about it?"_

"_**We**__," Kepesk said as he and Arcaein stepped forward to stand beside their friend, "are going to call your bluff and wait for Mina to get back with Master Soren."_

_It was at this moment that Dustin and his group noticed that the green dragoness was nowhere to be seen. Snarling, the crimson dragon launched himself at Arcaein while his goons followed his lead and attacked Malefor and Kepesk. The Light Dragon found himself clawing and biting at the bully as he tried to keep from getting pinned. As he thrashed about to knock his attacker loose, Dustin was trying to tear apart his underbelly, though Arcaein's constant flailing was making it difficult._

_While those two fought, Malefor and Kepesk defended themselves against their own opponents, the pair of twin Earth Dragons named Kenji and Kato that followed Dustin like hired thugs. Both dragons had scales of a dark green color, as well as underbellies and wing membranes that were a dull brown. Their horns were curved forward, similar to bull's horns, and were the same color as their underbellies, as were the spikes that traveled down their backs to their tail blades. Their tail blades were both in the shape of crescents, but they grew in opposite directions; while Kenji's had the tips of the moon-like shape facing to the right, Kato's faced to the left. Their eyes were another trait that was used to tell the two apart as Kenji had a dark brown, whereas Kato's were an electric-blue color._

_Malefor fought Kenji, while Kepesk did his best to keep Kato at bay. Due to his being an Electric Dragon, his element was mostly useless against the Earth Dragon's own. Despite this disadvantage, he used his wit to evade the strong Earth Shots that the green dragon shot at him and fired bolts of electricity that, although they did little damage, frazzled the dragon's thinking and made it easier to dodge his attacks. Meanwhile, Malefor took a more straightforward approach and smashed through his opponents elemental attacks by counteracting them with his own while he charged him. He closed the distance between them relatively quick and soon they were forced to fight without resorting to their innate abilities, and instead with their own strength._

_It wasn't long before the three friends had managed to get their adversaries on the ropes, but they were forced to halt by a familiar voice yelling, "Enough!"_

_Everyone in the room immediately turned to the origin of the shout to see the familiar shape of the Electric Guardian, Soren, with Mina at his side. Soren was not a very muscular dragon, instead he was lean, built for the quick fighting and thinking that most Electric Dragons did. He was still rather large, easily dwarfing any dragon in the training room, even though some of them had already reached adulthood. His scales were a deep golden color, with an image of a blue lightning bolt on both of his sides that went from the tip of his spade-tipped tail to the beginning of his neck. His underbelly was a creamier-colored yellow than his scales, as were his wing membranes and ram-shaped horns. His eyes were a blue so pale they almost appeared white, the only indication of his blindness as he had long since adapted to the world without vision and moved around as though he could see perfectly fine; sometimes even able to move his un-seeing eyes directly at you, which made most of the students a little bit scared of him._

"_What is going on here?" he demanded, turning his head around the room until he somehow seemed to sense where the six formerly-fighting dragons stood, a specific three looking at their paws in shame of being caught red-pawed, "Mina informed me that there was some sort of ruckus caused by three dragons bullying the new pupil, is this true?"_

"_Yes, Master Soren," Arcaein nodded, taking a step closer to his favorite mentor, "Dustin and his cronies were making fun of how he had fins and no tail blade. Malefor, Kepesk, and I defended him and Dustin and his group attacked us."_

_The older dragon nodded thoughtfully before turning his head to look at the quivering dragon. Arcaein did as well as he hadn't actually been able to get a good look at him before he'd jumped to his defense. The dragon was around his age, a little smaller than him, but not by much. His scales and wing membranes were an ocean-blue color, while his underbelly and wing joints were a calmer bluish-green. His horns were a dark blue and curved back in a way similar to Mina's, but his pointed upwards more at the tips. He did have fins instead of a tail blade, that looked like it was made of the same kind of fleshy-material as wing membranes, and they were a pale and semi-translucent blue color. He also had the same appendages on the ankles of all his legs and had small, frill-like ones growing on either side of his face. His eyes were two different colors, which surprised the young Light Dragon a little; one was a raging blue-green like the ocean, while the other was the calm and pale blue of a stream._

"_Is what Arcaein said true, young one?" Soren asked, bringing the Silver Dragon back to focusing on what was going on, "Were they defending you before the fight broke out?"_

"_Y-yes, Master Soren," the dragon answered, nodding timidly, "They were only trying to get everyone to stop laughing at me."_

_Soren raised an eyeridge at this, but didn't comment on the matter and instead turned to look at Dustin, Kenji, and Kota before speaking, "You three are to apologize to him before going to scrub the floors of all the bathrooms until they sparkle, understand?"_

"_Yes, Master," they said simultaneously and turned to look at the dragon they'd been tormenting and spoke in sync once again, "We're sorry."_

_Afterwards they scurried off out of the training room as fast as they could, not wanting to risk any further punishment. Soren chuckled at how fast they moved; even though he couldn't see them move, he could feel the movement in the air around him. He then turned to look at the group of ten or eleven dragons and dragonesses standing around in the room, watching with wide eyes._

"_Back to training, all of you!" he ordered, "Before I have all of you cleaning the bathrooms!"_

_The spectators quickly did as they were told and either found a sparring partner, or started attacking a training dummy with their elements. Soren smirked a bit at how much they all abhorred chores, even though they were a necessary thing and everyone had to pitch in to do them anyway or the entire temple would be filthy._

_The blind dragon returned his attention back to Arcaein and his friends, as well as Mina who'd come over to make sure they were all okay, and cleared his throat to get their attention. He got it almost immediately, pride welling up inside as he recognized that he'd aided in the training of the dragons that would leap to help a dragon they didn't even know._

"_Now, I don't condone the use of violence unless in training or in life-threatening situations," he started off, feigning disappointment that turned into a humorous grin, "but I think I'll make an exception this time. Go say hello to your new temple-mate, I have a feeling he wants to thank you four."_

_They all nodded before walking over to the dragon, who still sat with his tail curled around his front paws and looked at the floor. Soren, seeing no need to remain, left the room and headed back to his chambers to get some rest after rushing through nearly half the temple before things got too far out of hand. Sensing the four approaching, the ocean-colored dragon looked up with apprehension on his face that melted into relief as he realized that it was the ones who'd defended him._

"_Hey, I'm Arcaein and these are my friends; Malefor, Kepesk, and Mina," the young Light Dragon said, all four of them smiling friendly as the Silver Dragon motioned to each of them in turn, "What's your name?"_

"_A-Arlyn," he said nervously, returning their smiles shyly, "Th-thanks for sticking up for me."_

"_It was no big deal," Malefor said kindly, "No one really likes Dustin and his goons anyway."_

"_You want us to help you train so you can stand up to him next time?" Kepesk questioned caringly._

"_Y-yeah," Arlyn said, nodding, "but I'm no good at fighting…"_

"_Well, neither was Kepesk," Arcaein teased his friend, "but I whooped his butt into fighting shape."_

"_Hey!" the Electric Dragon said indignantly as everyone burst into laughter, even Arlyn snickered a bit. After a moment or two, Kepesk joined in on the laughter and the five of them enjoyed the feeling of mirth it gave them._

_**Flashback End…**_

"Hard to believe that shy little dragon turned into such an outgoing fighter," Kepesk chuckled, shaking his head, "I mean, he not _only _asked out Dustin's sister a month after we defended him against the bully, she actually told him to ask again in front of her brother and he did it! She even said yes, too!"

"Can you blame him?" Arcaein asked humorously, looking at his friend, "She was one of the prettiest dragonesses in the school and everyone was too afraid of her brother to court her. Hell, the two of them even became mates, remember?"

"Yeah, and even though Arlyn dating Dustin's sister caused problems in the beginning," the Electric Dragon said, "after a while, they settled them and Dustin eventually became a good dragon and a good friend."

The Silver Dragon sitting next to him let out a sigh before he spoke, "The two of us have seen too many people die, while we get yet another life. It's not fair to the ones who were too young to even have seen the outside of their nurseries."

"My friend," Kepesk said, turning to look at his fellow General, "everyone has regrets about things they could've changed, and the two of us have twice the amount a normal person has. But no one can change the past without drastically changing the person they became because of their past, no matter how much we wish it weren't so."

"I suppose," Arcaein relented, nodding slowly, "but one can always wish."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"You're sure about this?" Cain asked Deryx, the human having explained what he and Ignotus had found out, "Someone forced the Rebirth Sigil onto my Traeia and she was reborn as human in another realm?"

"It seems like that, yes," the man responded, looking over at where Ignotus was trying to draw the spirit of the Fire Dragoness out of Elana without knocking her unconscious, "and we're hoping that having you talk to her while she can see you will help bring her back out without harming the girl."

"It didn't work when I was taunting her before _I _knocked her out," the Silver-and-Red Dragon pointed out, shaking his head, "What makes you think it'll work now?"

"Because you'll be talking to her like you would talk to Traeia," the magic user said reluctantly, rubbing the back of his head as he refused to meet Cain's gaze, "like a..._lover_."

"You're crazy if you think I'm doing that," the dragon told him, shaking his head in denial, "I'm _not _talking to some girl I hardly know like I would my mate, especially one who was part of an invasion force that killed only the Ancestors know how many!"

"If you don't," Deryx said, his voice dangerously low, "then this might keep happening until there's too many for us to track down and fix. Besides, if it works then you'll be able to talk to Traeia again, shouldn't you _want _to do that?"

Cain let out a sigh and looked away before he responded softly, "The last time I talked to her was over twenty years ago, before my brother murdered her and framed our son; and I _believed _him. Because of that I killed so _many _innocent people in the attempt to rid the world of anyone who my brother said had something to do with her death and my son's apparent one, as well as anyone who stood in the way of doing that. I can't face her, not after all the horrible things I've done."

The human standing in front of him began to say something, but whatever he said was merely background noise to the dragon as he felt a memory begin to overtake him.

_**Flashback…**_

_A sixteen-year-old Cain walked through the streets of his hometown of Feklas, his crimson-red scales glinting in the light of the setting sun. He was on his way home after a month-long training regimen that the Dragon Elders had him do every couple of months because he was officially a ward of theirs due to his parents' deaths during a war when he was three and they wanted a reason to check up on him. He didn't mind it because it made him feel like he still had a family, as well as the fact that they paid for anything he needed. As he was passing a food stall, he bumped into someone and the two of them fell onto their rears, both letting out a yelp of surprise as they fell._

_Cain recovered quicker than the other dragon and he got to his feet and hurried over to help them up, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to—"_

_He stopped speaking as the __**dragoness **__cut him off, "It's fine, I was distracted while looking for the person I was sent here by the Elders to look for."_

"_Oh, maybe I can help?" the red dragon offered, a hopeful glint in his eye at possibly getting to know this dragoness more. He took a moment to take in the beautiful female in all her majesty._

_She had red scales, not quite as dark as his but not much lighter either, and her underbelly was a pale blue, like a cloudless sky. Her wing membranes were the same shade of color as her underbelly, while her tail tip was darker blue and shaped like a spade. She had four ivory-colored horns; two curved towards the inside while the other two were in between and went back towards her tail. She was slightly smaller in size than he, and much lither in shape._

"_Well, I was told he was a crimson-scaled dragon," she said, her violet-colored eyes looking him up and down quickly, "Not unlike you. Your name wouldn't happen to be Cain, would it?"_

"_It is, actually," the red-eyed dragon said, grinning, "Why did the Elders send you here to find me?"_

"_Well," she said, looking away nervously, "It's…kinda embarrassing."_

"_It can't be that bad," he encouraged._

"_Well, I need help," she said, looking back at him out of the corners of her eyes, "learning how to control my element."_

"_And they sent you to me?" Cain asked, surprise evident on his face, "I didn't think the Elders thought so highly of me."_

"_Er, they gave me a list of people to choose from to help me," she said awkwardly, "I chose you because I thought that maybe you'd understand why I have so much trouble controlling it."_

"_What do you mean?" he asked, cocking his head to the side slightly in confusion._

"_Your parents were killed in the war against the Dark Army…just like mine," she whispered softly, looking down at the ground, "Ever since then I've been unable to control my element."_

"_Oh," Cain said, walking over to her side and wrapping a comforting wing over her, "Well, I'd be glad to help."_

"_Thank you," she murmured, nuzzling him under his chin. Both of them blushed at this, but neither pulled away from the embrace, either. Eventually, however, Cain cleared his throat and spoke._

"_Do you have a place to stay?" he asked, looking down at her a bit due to the slight difference in size, "I mean, if not then I'm sure my brother and I could make some room."_

"_Really?" she asked, looking up at him with wide, hopeful eyes, "You'd do that?"_

"_Of course," he said, smiling down at her, "After all, I couldn't let you stay in an inn full of strangers, could I?"_

"_Th-thank you," she said, blushing slightly, though it was hard to tell with her red scales, "I really—"_

_She was forced to stop when a small jet of blue flame fired from her open maw and went just past his head, close enough that Cain could feel the heat from the fire. She managed to stop after a moment, and the both of them stared at each other for a while in silence. The blush on her face grew and became obvious even with her red scales, while Cain stared at her with wide eyes._

_After what seemed like an eternity, he began to let out soft chuckles. She watched in silent shock as his laughter became deeper and heartier._

_When he was so far in that people were beginning to stare, she spoke loudly, "What's so funny?"_

"_It's just…" he said, trying to hold back his laughter, "I understand what you meant when you said you couldn't control it."_

"_Oh," she said in realization before she began to giggle a bit, too, "I can only imagine the grief my little sister would give me for losing it again."_

"_Where is your sister?" he asked curiously, "shouldn't she have come with you?"_

"_The Elders said that she had to stay with them to master her own elements," she said, her smile fading slightly, "Her egg was affected by the darkness coursing through the land, and when she hatched she had abilities that marked her as a darkness dragon. I was only two at the time, and I did my best to help her for a while, but without control of my own element I wasn't much help, and that was almost fifteen years ago. In order to keep her from giving into the evil those powers bring, they said she has to remain there until it's shown she has complete control of them."_

"_I see," Cain said, looking away for a moment before turning to face her with a grin, "Well, maybe I can meet her one day? But right now, we have to get started on helping you control your own element! What's your name, by the way?"_

"_It's Traeia," she said, returning his smile warmly, "and thank you."_

"_No problem," he said, bowing his head slightly, "Now c'mon! We'll head out to the old training grounds outside town!" _

_He took off through the town, leaving a surprised dragoness staring wide-eyed before she quickly ran off him shouting, "Hey, wait up!"_

_**Flashback End…**_

"Hey, you there?" Deryx asked as Cain felt the memory begin to slip away, bringing him back to reality, "Your eyes got all distant for a bit there, and you were mumbling to yourself, too."

"I'm fine," the Red-and-Silver Dragon answered , shaking his head to clear it, "Just recalling an old memory. I'll do what you wanted, but let me make something perfectly clear; I'm not doing it because you asked or to find out what happened, I'm doing it so I can show her that I'm still the same as when she was still alive."

The magic user didn't respond, merely stepped out of the way to allow the dragon to walk past him. He did just that and made his way over to where Hunter and Ignotus had managed to subdue the thrashing Elana, as well as get the magic-dampening rope around her wrists behind her back. She glared at him as he walked closer, while the Avalarian and Sage backed away from the girl. When Cain finally came to a stop in front of her, their eyes locked as he looked down at her and she looked up at him. Somewhere, the dragon could feel the presence of his mate behind the deep hatred that filled her violet gaze.

He laid down in front of her and brought his head down so it was level with hers' and, surprisingly, began to hum deep in his throat. Everyone watched with stunned, wide eyes as he began to sing, _"Somewhere, deep inside of you, is a flower waiting to bloom. Let it find a way out and show the world its beauty, and stun them with its grace."_

Elana's eyes began to get a distant look in them and she opened her mouth and began to sing, not in her voice but in the voice of Traeia, _"Long ago, you locked away your heart; worried that you'd be hurt. But, the day you saved me, that lock was broken and you let me in. You were my knight, and I was your Lady."_

Both of them began to sing simultaneously, tears welling up in both of their eyes while everyone was stunned at how well their two voices, baritone and soprano, melded together, _"You lost all hope when you found me gone, but when I came back it was a new dawn. We sat down together, and said 'I love you' until the moon came, and then we laid down together, basking in its light."_

When the two stopped singing, they leaned forward and Traeia, now in control of Elana's body, placed her forehead against Cain's snout. He breathed in and, surprisingly, found her scent under the smell of the Death's Embrace member. He closed his eyes as he felt the warmth of his heart flow through his body.

"I missed you," he whispered into her soft brown hair, tears falling down his cheeks, "I did so many things, so many horrible things, because I was blinded by loss and hatred. I'm so sorry for all the things I've done."

"Cain," she murmured, bringing her head up so she could look into his blue eyes with her violet ones, "Your brother tricked you, nothing more. You have nothing to feel sorry for, you've made up for the things you did by helping here for so long. I'm so happy that I was able to see you like this again, so proud and strong, in person."

Arana, meanwhile, was watching the exchange from a little ways away, having been listening after eavesdropping on Deryx's conversation with Cain earlier. She felt tears forming at the corners of her eyes and quickly looked away and shut her eyes to block out the tears.

To her surprise, however, she heard her sister say, "Ara, I know you're there. I want to see you, too, sister."

She turned back to see Traeia looking over at her while the Red-and-Silver Dragon curled himself around her, biting through the ropes that bound her wrists as he did so. His head came to rest in her lap, and she stroked it lovingly as she turned her gaze back to him.

The Black Dragoness walked over to them slowly, feeling as though she were lifting heavy weights with every step she took. When she came to a stop in front of them, they looked up at her with a calm warmness that she felt a little surprised.

"Ara, you've grown so much since I last saw you," Traeia said softly, looking up at her younger sister, "Have you been doing well for yourself?"

At this, Arana felt an overwhelming anger build up and she couldn't help it as she began to shout, "How have I been doing? We all thought you were resting in peace with the Ancestors, but instead you're trapped in the body of some human girl who uses Dark Magic! Doing well for myself? Ha! I gave into the Dark Elements, hoping to get away from the pain of your death and I ended up helping Cain kill all the Elders and become a tyrant before I joined Merikh after he was defeated!"

The Red-and-Silver Dragon tensed up as she spoke, but the feeling of Traeia stroking the top of his head with her hand caused him to relax under her touch. He let out a contented murr and closed his blue eyes, while she turned her violet ones to her sister.

"Ara," she murmured, reaching out to the Black Dragoness with her other hand, "I'm sorry for all the pain that's befallen you, but that can all change if you want it to. If you hold onto the past then you can never move on and find happiness."

When her sister's hand touched the side of her neck, Arana felt a calming warmth she hadn't felt since she and Traeia were children and her older sister was trying to cheer her up when she was sad or depressed flow through her. However, this time she fell down onto her underbelly and her head was about to fall on top of Cain's, but Traeia was able to catch her head and held it to her chest gently.

"Shh, sister," she cooed softly, rubbing the side of her face, "Everything will be fine, though I may never be able to be myself again, I will always be here for both of you. And I want you two to do something for me."

They both looked up at her with curiosity in their eyes, as well as soft unshed tears at the sides, "I want you two to protect and care for one another, no matter what. And never lose sight of what matters: Everything that you still have."

"M-Mom?" a soft whisper came from behind them. They turned to see that Athkor was regaining consciousness and looking over at them with surprise in his eyes, "Is that you, Mom?"

Traeia smiled warmly as she spoke, "Athkor, I'm so glad to see you're awake. I was worried I wouldn't be able to talk to you before I had to leave."

"Leave?" Cain asked, confused, "What are you talking about?"

Athkor got to his unsteadily got to his feet at swayed slightly as he hurried over so he could place his head against his mother's form, as she spoke, "This body is dying, the Dark Magic inside it had so much power that it's tearing her apart."

"Mom, no," Athkor cried, tears falling onto the black cloak she wore as he shook his head, "You can't leave, not again!"

"Trae, please," Arana whispered, tears dripping down her cheeks as well, "Don't go…"

"Traeia, I just got you back," Cain murmured, lifting his head up and nuzzling the side of her face, "I can't lose you again!"

"Don't you remember what I told you?" she asked him, smiling teasingly as she left out the implied 'idiot,' "I will always be here for all of you, no matter what. But, before I go, there are two things I have to do."

Before he could react, Traeia turned her head and brought him into a deeply passionate kiss that caught him off-guard, but after a moment he was pulled into it and kissed her back. She placed her hands on the sides of his face and stroked his scaly cheeks for a moment before she broke away slowly.

"That's one," she said, smiling contentedly as she was a bit out of breath as Cain did the same, "And two: Tell Deryx and Ignotus that the name of Ancestor that forced me to be reborn was named Davoryn. Good bye, all of you."

Before any of them could do anything, her body fell limp on Cain's side and the three of them felt more tears streaming down their cheeks. They heard footsteps running over and they turned to see Ignotus and Deryx were headed over to them.

When they came to a stop, Ignotus spoke, "What happened?"

"She's…gone," Cain whispered as Athkor sought comfort from him as he sat up and he wrapped his wings around him while Arana stalked off, holding back a flurry of tears, "Gone to rejoin the Ancestors."

"I see," the older man said, rubbing his chin, "Did you—"

He stopped as Deryx put a hand in front of him and shook his head slowly before he walked over to the three. He looked up at Cain for approval as he knelt down next to Elana's lifeless body that Traeia's spirit had inhabited. The dragon nodded and the magic user drew the sword at his waist and stabbed it into the ground next to the body. He used it as a focus as he sent his magic into the ground to create a rectangular shape in the ground around her, before the ground rose up and covered her form with stone. Runes began to carve themselves into the rock that covered her face that read: _'Here lies Traeia, whose spirit inhabited the body of a villain, as well as everyone else.'_

"Thank you, Deryx," Cain murmured, looking down at the brown-haired man. He nodded in acknowledgment before he looked up at the dragon.

"Did she tell you anything?" he whispered, his eyes locking with the dragon's own.

"The name of the Ancestor who did this to her," he said, his gaze hardening, "was Davoryn."

At this name, both magic users stiffened and Ignotus softly said, "It can't be…"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: And so ends Part One of Memory Lane.

Kain: Quickly, go to the next one!


	16. Chapter 16: Memory Lane Pt 2

Jacy: And here's Part Two, where a couple of new characters are introduced.

Kain: And although it isn't as long as the last chapter, the ending is important!

Wolf: Let's get a move on, you two!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 16: Memory Lane, Part Two

Kain found himself back in one of the make-shift hospital rooms in the back of the mall, sitting on the bed while Hanna wrapped bandages around his chest. She'd already disinfected it and did her best to close it, though the black-haired man still felt as if he was being shot through the chest again. He noticed a bottle of painkillers being pushed into his hand and looked over to see Hanna was the one doing it.

"I think there are others who need these more than I do," he told her despite his want to seize them, trying to place them back in her hand but she wouldn't take them.

"You were shot," she said firmly, "and everyone else had their more serious wounds healed. Take the damn pills since you're so hell-bent on going to take on Merikh!"

Kain was silent for a moment as he looked at the pill bottle in his hands before he spoke quietly, "You don't want me to go, do you?"

"I nearly lost you almost as soon as I got back!" she shouted, tears forming at the corners of her eyes as she looked at him, "And now you plan on going to take on one of the most powerful people on the planet wounded! I can't lose you…not again."

He watched as she began to cry, and placed the bottle of painkillers next to him before he placed his hand on her chin and brought her gaze up to meet his before he said, "Do you remember when we first met?"

"I had to go into Jacy's head to make sure he could be trusted," she murmured, her eyes getting a bit hazy as she remembered. Kain absent-mindedly buttoned his shirt back up as he, too, was lost to the memory.

_**Flashback…**_

"_Are you sure this is the only way you can check whether or not I can be trusted?" A much younger, sixteen-year-old Jacy asked. His hair was still in its shaggy brown state and his eyes were still the familiar dark green, but he didn't have the facial hair he would have five years later, nor did he have as much muscle, either._

_He had to kneel as a younger, smaller, and more innocent looking Hanna placed her hand on his forehead. She had her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail while her blue eyes were full of hesitance at what she had to do. She wore an oversized white shirt that covered her other hand while the one on Jacy's head had the sleeve falling to her elbow, revealing more of her pale skin. She wore a pair of loose-fitting grey sweatpants as well, making her small frame seem even smaller. Behind her stood an older man that Jacy would come to learn was named Harry. He wore a ruffled and dirty suit, his tie loose around his neck and a sub-machine gun clasped tightly in his hands._

"_Jacy," the familiar voice of Kera spoke to his side, and he turned his gaze to she was standing there with a look of calm, "Pull down the barriers that I taught you to put around your mind, you'll only hurt yourself if you try to block her out. This is Hanna, and she is one of the most powerful psychics and telepaths that I've ever met."_

_Kera's green hair was loose and fell to her shoulders, and her blue eyes were simply composed and calculating. Her clothing seemed to ripple with energy, though remained perfectly still. She wore a plain blue t-shirt and a pain of faded jeans, as well as a pair of black boots. All of it hugged her form nicely and Jacy was reminded of her beauty, but quickly pushed the thought away before he did something stupid._

"_Fine," he sighed in resignation, feeling a strange tingling sensation as he brought down the barriers around his mind, "But if she strays anywhere she doesn't need to then I'm going to get her out if it kills me."_

"_I won't," Hanna said softly, shyness in her tone, "So, please don't fight. You won't kill yourself, but you might end up breaking your mind to pieces."_

_He wasn't able to respond before his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went limp. What no one else saw was that the sixteen-year-old found himself standing in a strange place that felt strangely familiar despite that he never remembered being here before. He looked around and it resembled the famous painting that he liked to call 'Crazy Stairs,' but there were also doors scattered everywhere while all the different staircases went off from the platform he stood on._

"_I was wondering how long it would be 'till you finally had to come here," a familiar voice said from behind him. He spun around to see the familiar form of Kain walking towards him, his arms behind his head, and he spoke again, "Though, I would've liked to know that you were bringing such a pretty one with you."_

"_What are you—?" he stopped as he noticed Hanna standing at his side, her arms down with the shirt covering both of them. She had reddened a bit at the black haired man's comment, which only made him smirk and his red eyes glint in amusement._

"_I'm here to make sure he can be trusted," she said softly, though the indignant tone behind it was clear as day, "Who are you? Why are you here?"_

"_His name's—" Jacy began to say, but the red-eyed man cut him off._

"_I can introduce myself, thank you," he said, an air of annoyance to his voice, "I'm Kain, and the old dog watching us from behind you is Wolf."_

_He smirked as he heard the indignant response from the canine, "I'm not a dog; I'm a wolf, dammit! And just because I came before you did doesn't mean I'm old!"_

"_You two never change," Jacy sighed in annoyance, rubbing his forehead, "Can we just get this over with?"_

"_What's the matter, Jay?" Kain asked mockingly, grinning, "Impatient to get back to your girl?"_

"_Sh-shut up!" he stammered in response, his face heating up, "It's not like that! She's a friend!"_

"_Whatever you say, Jacy," he sighed, coming to a stop in front of the two, "What does the beautiful girl want as proof that you are trustworthy?"_

_Hanna blushed furiously and turned her head away before responding, "My name is Hanna, you know. If you'd asked, I would've told you. And I need to find the basis of his entire mind to make sure he does not have any thoughts of betraying us!"_

"_Well, __**Hanna**__," Kain responded, placing his hand on her head and kneeling down so their heads were on equal height, "Finding that isn't going to be __**easy**__. As you've probably noticed, his mind doesn't quite work like everyone else's. In fact, it's a little disorienting with the way the staircases and doorways move and change."_

"_What?" she asked before the sounds of stone grinding against stone was heard and all of them looked around to see that everything was, indeed, shifting. Staircases moved from side to side, or even up to down, and so forth. The doors that either floated, or sat on different areas that the stairs led to, changed into different types of doorways, and some even vanished entirely. This kept going until the entire place was completely different._

"_The place is like a madhouse," Wolf said as he walked out from behind Kain despite having been heard from behind Jacy and Hanna last time, "It's impossible to keep your sense of direction in this place, so getting to your destination will mean several detours."_

"_Wait, isn't this my mind?" Jacy asked, causing everyone to look at the brown-haired teen, "I mean, can't I just think about us being there and we'll be there?"_

"_In any other case, yes," the canine responded while Kain returned to his normal height, though his hand didn't leave Hanna's head, "But where she wants to go is unreachable that way, so we have to go the __**long **__way or we won't get there."_

"_Or," Kain said, a humorous grin on his face as he looked down at the short, blonde seventeen-year-old, "You can take our word that Jacy is no threat to you or your interests, as well as not tell anyone about us."_

"_I…" she hesitated, looking away in uncertainty, "I don't think I can promise that. This is…Harry needs to know about this."_

"_Oh?" the black-haired man asked, a look of mock-surprise on his face, "Is your friend interested in history, especially World War II? Even so, he probably wouldn't have heard of the Black Eagles."_

"_Black...Eagles?" she asked, curiosity piquing while Jacy simply sighed in irritation as he readied himself for one of the red-eyed man's stories about him and his unit, "What's that?"_

"_It was a group of Black Ops soldiers that were sent behind German lines to destabilize the economy and cause mayhem," Kain explained, smirking as he remembered all the carnage he caused, though not once did he or his comrades purposely harm an innocent, "I was one of them. We were a close-knit group of guerilla fighters and we did a lot of the dirty work that the upper brass wanted done there. The catch was we had to abandon our real names and create false ones, though we kept our ranks. None of us knew each other's real names, but in time our false ones became as recognizable as our originals. Mine was Kain Zaron, ranked Major. "_

"_Wow," she said, eyes sparkling in wonder while Jacy let out a snort of derision, "How come you aren't famous?"_

_Kain's smirk disappeared and was replaced by a firm frown as he responded, "After one of our more successful attacks on the Nazi capital, we were careless. We didn't know we had been followed by an incredible accurate sniper until it was too late. He picked us off one at a time until only I and my superior, General Theodore Brand, were left. I'd been shot in the leg and he was too far away from where I was taking cover to do anything. He tried anyway and yelled at me to get up, and that's what killed him. The sniper knew where he'd been hiding and was waiting for the moment he made a misstep and came out of cover, and it happened when he called out to me. I watched the last of my comrades fall, and I saw nothing but red. I grabbed the rifle that I had dropped when I'd been shot trying to take cover and dove away from it. I shot randomly into the tree line, and luck was and wasn't on my side. One of my shots managed to hit him, but so did one of his. I heard the bullet rip through my chest and the thud of him falling before nothing was left. When I could finally see something, I found myself here and here I've been ever since. I guess since the government saw us as a failure, they saw no reason to tell the public about us, especially since they won the war anyway."_

_The blonde girl didn't say anything as the man began to shake with anger and depression; instead she wrapped her arms around him in a comforting hug. She only came to about his mid-chest, though that wasn't really that big of a problem. It caught him by surprise, however, and he had no idea what to do for a moment before he embraced her and felt everything melt away but for the feeling of her hugging him. His eyes closed halfway while hers were shut tightly as she fought back tears._

"_I'm sorry for all the pain that you've gone through," she murmured gently, squeezing him tighter, "even though me saying so doesn't take any of it away. I'll believe you that Jacy is a good person, but I want you to promise me something."_

"_What is it?" he whispered, unable to hide his smirk at seeing that Jacy had turned his back on the two of them and was rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment, while Wolf absentmindedly scratched behind his ear with his hind leg._

"_Promise me that I'll get to see you again?" she said, pulling away slightly so she could look up at him with hopeful blue eyes._

"_If I'm so lucky," he responded, causing Hanna to blush at his compliment. She looked away in embarrassment before Kain spoke again, "Now, you better get going."_

_She nodded hesitantly before quickly moving and planting a soft kiss on the red-eyed man's cheek. Before he could respond, however, she and Jacy faded away as she stopped using her ability to project the two of them there. He slowly brought his hand to the place her lips had touched while Wolf walked over to his side._

"_Now who's the one with a girl?" he teased, sitting down next to him._

"_Shut up, fur ball," he shot back, glaring down at the snickering canine._

_**Flashback End…**_

"You were so shy," Kain murmured as he came out of his memory, unsurprised to find that Hanna had crawled into his lap while he was distracted. Her head lay against his chest, her eyes closed in satisfaction while her hand gripped his shirt tightly.

"And you were bigheaded," she pointed out, smiling teasingly. They both chuckled a bit at her comment, glad for the closeness of the other.

"I guess we did each other a favor, then," he said, sighing at the feeling of her so close to him, "But, I suppose I'm still a bit stubborn and arrogant because I'm going and I will be coming back."

She nodded slowly, understandingly, before looking up at him with hopeful eyes, "How long before we leave?"

Kain couldn't help the knowing smirk from spreading across his face as he responded, "I'd say we've got a few hours."

She leaned up so that her lips were next to his ear before she sensually murmured, "Then you're all mine 'till then."

"I'm yours always, Hanna," he told her, before their lips connected in a flurry of love and passion.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Kera had remained in the same spot with Jacy's head on her lap, waiting for the man to regain consciousness. There were other's around her, holding and sobbing into the bodies of people who had perished before the sphere of energy that Blane created could heal them. She felt the tears she'd been holding back begin to slide down her cheeks as she saw that Acelan was among the dead, with Marie crying over his prone form.

Her attention was pulled away from the grieving Elemental Marked One by the sound of coughing and movement from the unconscious man whose head was on her lap. She looked down at him to see his eyes beginning to open, the dark-green of his irises showing through the small slits that his eyes had opened up to. Able to make out Kera's face through his blurry vision, he gave her a weak smile.

"How are you feeling?" she asked concernedly, but managing a small smile back at him.

"Like I took on a tornado and a life-draining vampire at the same time," he chuckled, his eyes glinting with amusement as he opened them a bit more, "And won."

"Blane survived because of everyone," she told him, frowning slightly but somehow managing to appear relieved that he was well enough to joke, "but you gave him more than just life; you gave him your ability. I didn't even think that was possible!"

"It probably isn't permanent," Jacy pointed out, shaking his head, "Though it'll give us a small advantage when we attack Merikh."

"I take it you heard that Blane made the call to arms, then?" she asked, a little bit of sadness in her voice.

"In my last few moments of consciousness, yeah," he said, smiling sorrowfully, "And I'm going with him, I need to see this all the way through."

"You don't need to do anything!" she told him, pleadingly, "You've already done so much already; let the others handle things."

"You know I can't do that Kera," he told her quietly, "It's my duty as not only the Creation Marked One, but also as one of the last living members of humanity to make sure Merikh is dead for sure this time."

"You nearly died saving Blane," she said, tears welling up in her blue eyes, "And now you're going off to go fight a battle that you very well might lose, already. I don't think you could handle life without the constant threat of dying."

"That's not true," he said, sitting up and placing his hands on her shoulders, "I'll be perfectly happy to settle down with you and our unborn child once I'm certain Merikh is dealt with. We'll go to the country somewhere, where there's plenty of room for them to grow. I promise you, Kera. It's my turn to protect _you_, to make up for all the times you protected me."

She smiled weakly back at him before they hugged one another; both sighing in contentment at being held by the one they loved most. It wasn't to last, however, as a familiar voice spoke up to interrupt their moment.

"Though I'm glad to see you awake," the well-known voice of Smoke said gruffly from behind the two, "You have a couple visitors at the front."

"What?" Jacy asked, confused and surprised, "Who'd be crazy enough to brave all the undead and monsters to get here, let alone _find _us to begin with?"

"Go ask them yourself," the old soldier said brusquely, "I'm not your damn messenger. Now, if you'll _excuse _me, I have to go and deal with our dead while you're _busy_."

The old man in camouflage proceeded to walk over to where Marie still cried over Acelan's body, and began speaking softly to her. It wasn't surprising to see how the Elemental Marked One hugged the soldier and sobbed into his shoulder, although he wasn't her real father, he had adopted her long before the shit storm that was the planet right now hit the fan.

"C'mon," the Creation Marked One said, getting to his feet and holding out a hand to help Kera up as well, "Let's go see who our mysterious guests are."

She took his hand, nodding, and he pulled her to her feet. Afterwards, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and the two made their way over to the front of the armored mall. Once there, they were shocked at who they found waiting.

One was a man with short, dirty blonde hair who stood at around the same height as Jacy and had hazel-blue eyes. He had the build of an athlete, and wore a green short-sleeved shirt and a pair of blue jeans, with a pair of black combat boots as well. He had a katana at his waist and held an MP5 with his left hand over his shoulder. He had a Glock 19 holstered at the other side of his waist, as well as two extra clips stuck into his belt next to the gun.

The other was a man with close cut black hair with a goatee of the same color on his chin and dark eyes, and was also around Jacy's height. He was built like a linebacker and wore a black t-shirt advertising _Voltaire _with a black leather jacket over that, as well as a pair of blue jeans and hiking boots. He had a much longer katana made for two-handed wielding at his waist, while a hunting rifle was slung over one shoulder and an AK-47 over the other. He held a holstered S&W Sigma in his right hand down by his side, the holster at the opposite side of his waist than the blade with two extra magazines next to it.

Both wore grins on their faces as Jacy said incredulously, "Connor? Jeremy?"

"In the flesh, little brother," the blonde, Jeremy, chuckled.

"Didn't think we forgot about ya, did ya, Jace?" Connor said, shaking his head in amusement, "After all, we went through hell and back to track you down, you really don't stay in one place for too long. Once we figured out where you were, we decided to come lend a hand."

"But what about our families?" Jacy asked, looking back and forth between the two, "You two were supposed to keep them safe, remember?"

"They're safe in the mountains, Jacy," Jeremy said, "'Sides, they can take care of themselves. After all, Josh is sixteen and more than capable of shooting a gun—"

"And Ariel's eighteen and wouldn't be much of a meal, anyway," Connor added humorously, "Not to mention our parents and my grandparents have adapted enough to be able to hunt and kill anything they need, plus any zombies that manage to get up the mountains."

"How did the two of you get here, anyway?" Kera spoke up, reminding everyone she was still there, "And find us, for that matter."

"We stole one of the still-working planes from the airport," Jacy's older brother said simply, "Fortunately it was one of the smaller passenger planes that only hold a handful of people so it didn't need much fuel. We only had to stop once to refuel, and that was in Nebraska."

"But finding you was a whole different story," the black haired man said, holstering his hand gun, "We knew you would probably be as far away from us as possible to keep anyone from finding out about us, but you also couldn't stay in one place for very long, either. So, we guessed you'd probably be on the East Coast somewhere, and constantly moving up and down the coast every week or so. The only reason we were coming to New York was because it was the easiest place to start looking. What tipped us off that you were here was the giant sphere of light that wiped out every zombie within a mile radius. We figured it was one of yours."

"It was a friend of mine, yes," Jacy said quietly, "It turns out my powers are a lot stronger than I thought. The one who did it was a character from that story I wrote six years ago."

"You mean the one with that half-dragon guy?" Jeremy asked, surprised.

"Yeah, it was him," the Creation Marked One nodded, "And he nearly died as a result."

"Well," Connor said, looking at his friend, "What's the plan?"

"The 'plan' is for you two to go back to Montana while I end this once and for all," Jacy said, his eyes narrowed.

"We spent the last year-and-a-half looking for you," Jeremy said, crossing his arms over his chest in irritation, "If you think we're just going to leave—"

"Look," the brown haired man interrupted, "fighting zombies is one thing, but going up against that madman and his allies is a whole different story. I'm not risking the two of you getting killed, I've lost enough already."

"I'm your brother, and Connor's your best friend," Jeremy told him seriously, "If you're going to go fight the guy who caused all this, then we're going with you, end of story."

"Yeah," Connor agreed, nodding his head seriously.

"Jacy," Kera murmured softly, "They're determined to fight beside you 'till the end, you have no right to deny them of that."

"I have every right!" the green-eyed man shouted, surprising everyone, "No one else needs to risk their lives for me, I won't let people suffer because of my mistake of not making sure Merikh was dead."

"Jacy, it wasn't your fault," his lover told him, her blue eyes alight with a surprising fierceness that caught the Creation Marked One off-guard when he saw it, "None of us could have foreseen that he would survive his wounds, nor falling from such a height."

"I should have," he said bitterly, turning away from her gaze and that of his sibling and friend's as well.

"You're always so damn stubborn!" she said, grabbing him by his shoulders, "Stop carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, we're your friends, your family. It's why we're here, to help _you _by taking some of the weight onto our own."

"She's right," Jeremy said, causing the brown-haired man to look at him, "We may not have gotten along so well before all of this, but even then I had your back. I still do little brother."

"I came to throw my boots in with a friend," Connor said, grinning warmly, "A good friend, in fact. One that I swore to always help whenever I was able to. Don't tell me you're going to make me a liar."

"Everyone here is with you, as well," a familiar voice spoke, and Jacy was unsurprised to see a familiar grey canine make his way over and sit down by his feet. Wolf's amber eyes were full of calm speculation as he continued, "This battle will make the last with Merikh pale in comparison, we all know that much. But everyone here also knows that we are the only ones that can stop him so that the survivors can rebuild, and that gives them hope and unparalleled determination. The other Councilmembers have unanimously agreed to let you, or anyone you deem better, become the sole leader for this fight. They all know a solitary leader would be best for this, but we also need one who will let people fight. Will you?"

Jacy looked at the faces of everyone around him and saw that they would all fight no matter what his decision was. He knew the risks they would be facing, how many people were likely to die for the single shard of faith that had always driven them: that they were the only ones standing between what was left of humanity and the army of dark creatures that Merikh led. The prospect of losing people he'd come to call, not family, but damn near close and trusted with his life scared him. But he didn't let that fear influence his decision, instead it helped him realize what to do.

"I will," Jacy agreed, nodding slowly but confidently, "and anyone who wishes to fight at my side is more than welcome to. This time, I won't offer him the chance of mercy. This time, Merikh dies."

As if to solidify his statement, Kera grabbed him by the back of his head and brought him into a passionate kiss. Wolf chuckled as he walked off, shaking his shaggy head in amusement at the two. Connor and Jeremy exchanged a glance of confusion before finding other things besides the couple more interesting.

After a moment of thought, the dark-haired man spoke up, "Was that dog talking?"

Jeremy responded with a shrug of his shoulders while Jacy and Kera both laughed into the kiss they shared.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: And there's the end of Memory Lane, and the grand finale is in the making and will be out soon.

Kain: And by that he means whenever he gets off his lazy ass to write it.

Jacy: Oh shut up. And to anyone who's wondering, yes I do have an older brother and a best friend that Jeremy and Connor are based on. They are, however, different in several ways and the names were changed so no one would know who they were. Anyways, I'm going to wrap this up because none of you are probably reading it anyway.

Wolf: See ya!


	17. Chapter 17: Readying for War

Jacy: I know it's been a while since I updated and I apologize, but I had a lot more trouble with this chapter than I thought.

Wolf: That and all the waves of schoolwork that got shoved down your throat.

Jacy: Yeah, but since none of you care what my excuse is, on with the chapter and—

Kain and Wolf: Happy Thanksgiving!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted things I use; I do own my OCs and this story.

Extra Disclaimers: Stardust and Dax belong to Alec the Dark Angel, Arana and Azimuth belong to Shining Darkness Dragon, and Serenity belongs to phoenix firewing. NOT ME.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Chapter 17: Readying for War

Jacy found himself sitting at a service for all those who had died during the battle, Blane's sphere of light healing coming too late to save them. Or, in Daniel's case, was the cause of his demise as it had been dark magic that had brought him back to life. Also among the honored were several people that Jacy felt horrible for not even knowing, as well as some he knew. There was a young boy, hardly out of his teens, that had joined hardly a month ago named Ralph, an old soldier that had fought alongside Smoke in several wars that everyone knew as Rook, and Acelan.

It was a hard-hitting blow to hear of the shape-shifter's demise, and not just to him. The blue-skinned man had been a well-liked member of the Survivors, and whereas Jacy was the beacon of hope, he was the embodiment of good-nature and peace. Whenever a fight or argument broke out among the people, he was usually the first to get there and usually had it broken up and fixed before any other members of the council got there. But one person amongst everyone was hit the hardest: Marie.

Jacy had known of their relationship for a while now, though the two were hesitant at first. Marie because she was shy for quite a while, as she was a shy person most of her life due to her abilities as a Marked One that marked her as an outcast as well as being an orphan. But after living among the Survivors for a while, she'd opened up and shown that she was a very kind and compassionate person. Acelan found himself drawn to her, wanting to get to know her more. After almost a year of stolen glances and silent fantasies, the two finally became a couple and everyone was happy for them. Well, almost everyone; Smoke, her adoptive father, was still unhappy that his daughter was dating someone. He eventually found his peace with it, and the atmosphere that followed the Survivors seemed to get brighter.

But now, it seemed, that had come to an end. Marie kneeled over Acelan's body, a white sheet covering his corpse. In all honesty, that was probably a good thing; his body was mangled and torn in several places, the only way to tell it was Acelan was by the pale-blue skin that hung off him in strips. The Elemental Marked One's form shivered as she sobbed; a depressing sound and sight for everyone there. Smoke stood not far off, seemingly impassive, but Jacy could tell by a slight shift in his stance that he was more bothered by his daughter's distress than he let on.

Before the Creation Marked One could do anything to stop him, Connor stepped away from where he'd been standing off to his left and went over to where Marie was crying. Jacy, as well as everyone else, could only watch in absolute horror as his friend tried to comfort the young Elemental Marked One, while Smoke tensed up. Marie clasped onto Connor, beginning to cry into his shoulder, causing the old soldier to pause in beginning to draw his pistol out of its holster.

He instead looked over to where Jacy stood and a silent threat traveled to him, _'He tries anything and he's dead.'_ The brown-haired man nodded in quick understanding and the two of them resumed listening to the person speaking about the people that had died while Connor continued to comfort Marie. Several other people came up to say their peace to their dead comrades before Jacy decided it was time for him to speak as well.

He walked forward as the current speaker finished and took the man's place on the slightly-elevated platform before he spoke, "We lost some of our fellow Survivors, too many for my taste and some I'm sad to say I didn't even know even after spending almost five years living with most of them. However, some of them I'm lucky to say I knew very well, but I considered all of them my friends, no, my _family_. And Merikh took them away from me, from all of us. He forced us to hide in fear, to kill our friends, our family, and people we didn't even know because they'd become nothing but monsters. But I say enough!"

A chorus of cheers rang out at these words, everyone being pulled in by the Creation Marked One's speech. He continued after the clamor had died down a bit, "We've had to move around every week just so he wouldn't be able to track us if we stayed in one place for too long, but I say we make our stand! It's time for us to take the fight to him rather than wait in fear of his next attack! I'm going to knock him off his tyrant's throne and ship him to Death's door in pieces, or die trying! Anyone who wishes to join me is more than welcome, but there is no shame in wanting to stay behind. I'll be honest with all of you; I don't expect that all who go will return. But those who perish will not die in vain, and neither shall the people we lost today!"

More people cheered at the brown-haired man's speech, egging him to go on, and he did, "Today, we fight the final battle to bring light back to our black world, and bring an end to this hell that has become our everyday life. We fight to protect those who cannot do so for themselves and those who we've lost while they tried to do the same. And if I die, then I'm sure as hell not going down without a fight! I'll take as many as them with me as I can; and Merikh himself if I can manage it. I hope I'll have the honor of having all of you fight by my side, but I know that some of you don't want to fight. There's nothing wrong with that, and I hope that I'll have the privilege of one day having the choice I'm giving you. But that day is not today, no matter how much I wish it was. I'll fight to my very last breath, and hopefully be able to have the opportunity to have taken it fighting beside all of you here today. Those who are going prepare yourselves; we leave in one hour."

After he finished speaking, he walked off the platform and found himself facing the people closest to him. Kera, tears welling up in her eyes, ran forward and embraced him and he wrapped his arms comfortingly around her. Jeremy chuckled amusedly at the green-haired girl's actions, though he nodded in approval of his little brother's words. Connor, with Marie still clinging to him for support, nodded at his friend with a grin on his face. Smoke, glowering at the man his daughter was holding on to, grunted at the Marked One's look at him. Fera and Aidan both sported matching grins, though he could tell that he had their support as well. Blane, in his draconic-human form, stood there with his arms crossed, a look of understanding on his face. Kain, with Hanna hugging his side with his arm around her, smirked at the green-eyed man, though his smirk faltered for a moment when Hanna whispered something in his ear. Wolf, who was sitting at their feet, obviously heard what was said as he began to let out a growl-like chortle.

"How'd I do?" Jacy asked nervously, looking at the group gathered in front of him.

"After all that you're worried that you didn't do good?" Fera asked, raising a single eyebrow, "There's no way you're still self-conscious after five years of being on the council."

"I'm just glad my little bro hasn't changed despite becoming a man!" Jeremy teased, a mocking smirk on his face.

"Even so, how do you plan to get everyone who's going there before the day is through?" Blane asked curiously, though there was a glint in his eye that he had a good idea of what the Creation Marked One had planned.

"It's simple enough, but I'll need your help if it's going to work," Jacy said, his dark-green eyes mirroring the look in his friend's, "before your temporary Marked One abilities fade."

"What do you have in mind?" the half-dragon asked, arching a brow. The brown-haired man simply grinned and motioned for him to follow before he walked over to the middle of the giant, open room of the mall with everyone else following behind. Once there, he instructed everyone else to stand back while he told Blane to mimic what he did.

They kneeled and placed their palms on the floor with their eyes closed and their breathing calm, both picturing what Jacy had said they were going to create. A long, rectangular shape formed as the ground cracked, almost three feet in width and nearly ten feet in length. Slowly, the shape began to rise, forming a giant gateway. When it stopped rising, it was at least fifteen feet high, with Jacy and Blane still kneeling at the top of it and concentrating.

Everyone watched in amazement as a portal began to form inside the gateway, small and centered in the middle at first. It pulsated, like it was alive, and grew in size until it nearly touched each of the corners of the gateway. It was simply a green swirl with mixes of white and lighter green for a while, and then a familiar place began to form in the portal.

"Alcatraz…?" Connor said confusedly, looking to the others, "Why Alcatraz?"

"It's where Merikh's made his new base of operations," Fera explained, "We destroyed his last one."

"Where was that?" Jeremy asked curiously, turning to look at the red-head.

"The White House," she answered simply.

"Yeah, I remember that," Aidan said, his eyes getting a bit hazy, "He kept me in the bomb shelter below it, so I couldn't escape while he tried to bend me to his will."

"Hey, stay with us big bro," Kera said, looking over her shoulder at him, "We've got you back now, that's all that matters."

"Right," Fera agreed, nodding her head, "Let's worry about how those two plan to get down from there, now."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Master, is it possible?" Deryx asked his mentor as they stood underneath a large oak tree, deciding their next move, "Could he have returned?"

"It seems so," Ignotus responded, scratching the silver-grey stubble on his chin, "Though I'm not quite sure how. Davoryn was originally an Elder, the Elder of Shadows to be exact. If the old writings I had to read as part of my advancement to a Warlock of the Council are correct, there hasn't been an Elder of his power since. He was one of the few to have mastered the Dark Elements and not be corrupted, or so it was thought. After the destruction of his home by raiders and slavers, he snapped. He chased each and every one of them that had even the smallest amount to do with it and tortured them until they finally died a most gruesome death. Once he'd done this, his psyche seemed to break as well and he began to develop multiple personalities. The part of him that was still good won control for a short time and turned himself over to the other Elders for punishment for his crimes. He managed to keep control up until they were about to end his life, and the darkest and most malevolent side of him broke through and began to destroy everything around him. It was only through the combined efforts of both the human magi and the other dragon Elders that they were able to finally deal with him. They sealed him away, never to be seen or heard from again. That was, until now."

"I know all that," the younger man said, absently rubbing the pommel of his sword with the palm of his hand, "I may not be on the Council, but I am _your _student. 'The past must be learned, so that it may never repeat itself,' as you always say, but _how _did he break the seals placed on him? And even more troubling, how did he find his way to the Ancestors?"

"If I may interrupt?" asked a new, yet familiar voice. They turned to see a large, teal dragon wearing robes of varying blue colors and bags of scrolls on his back as well. He wore a necklace with a blue crystal that _hummed _with great power. He had several frill-like appendages that looked like flames on his face, while his eyes were a fire-red color.

"I'm sorry, I don't believe we've been introduced," Ignotus said politely, looking at the newcomer, "I'm Ignotus, Warlock of the Magi Council of the Granzak Province, and you are?"

"I am well aware of who you are, Wizard," the dragon responded, a kind smile on his face, "I am Ignitus, the Chronicler of the Third Age of this realm as well as various other ages of separate realms."

"It's good to see you again, Ignitus," Deryx said, bowing slightly to the old dragon in respect, "but I thought that you were only the Chronicler of this realm?"

"I thought so as well, but I found that my predecessor was hiding a few things," the teal dragon said, chuckling slightly, "or wanted me to find them out on my own, at least."

"You know this dragon, Deryx?" Ignotus questioned curiously, looking to his student.

"We've met during my visits to Dragon Realms," the man explained, placing his palm against the rough bark of the tree, "but every time I see you, there's a good reason. What brings you this time?"

"Three reasons," Ignitus said, though his somber tone told the two Mages that they weren't good, "The first one being that Davoryn has indeed escaped his eternal prison, though it was by dying that he managed to do it. It seems that he only forced Traeia to be reborn, no one else. Afterwards, there's nothing else about him, even in his own book."

"That's certainly odd," Ignotus said, rubbing his chin, "And the other two?"

"I can't say much," the dragon said slowly, thinking out every word, "Only that the fight in this realm is not yet over. The final threat to Dragon Realms is something that will be caused by a great battle being fought in another realm, the one where Blane is fighting alongside Jacy against a very dark and evil foe. This fight will be unlike any other seen in a very long time, and the outcome will decide the fate of not only that realm, but every realm that is or ever will be."

"Is there anything we can do to help them?" Deryx asked anxiously, the bark of the tree beginning to char beneath his hand.

"That brings me to my third reason, actually," the teal dragon said, his tone almost grandfatherly, "The fight itself will begin to bleed through the cracks that have formed between the realms, and creatures from several other realms will begin to bleed through into this one. You and the others must keep the city safe, or this realm will be torn apart and they will move into Jacy's realm. If he is forced to face as many new enemies as will pass through here, the closest realm to his own, then he will be hard-pressed to win and all will be lost should he lose. That _mustn't _happen."

"How long do we have to prepare?" Ignotus asked calmly, though his face was a mask of apprehension and fierce resolve.

"Until the sun begins to set," Ignitus said, turning his gaze to the horizon, where the sun was high enough that it would be roughly an hour or two before it began to set, "After that, monsters the likes of which you have never seen, nor will ever see again should Jacy succeed, will begin to march towards Warfang in great numbers. Every able-bodied warrior _must _fight, or not only will the city fall, but everything else with it. Now, I must leave you, for the outcome of this belongs to all of you."

"Wait," Ignotus asked, his blue eyes alight with curiosity, "as the Chronicler, shouldn't you be forbidden from interfering with things such as this?"

"Interfering is such a strong word, I like to think of it as 'meddling at a crossroads'," the teal dragon said with an impish grin as he faded from sight.

Once he was gone, Master turned to Student and said, "Let's move, we haven't got long to prepare everyone for another battle; one that we may not be very well-equipped to win, but we damn-well aren't rolling over and dying without a fight."

Deryx simply grinned at the older man and pulled his hand off the tree to reveal that an imprint of his hand had been seared into the bark, with smoke still curling off of it.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"He died a hero," Talea murmured softly, looking at the dying black flames that came from the room where, she'd been told, Malefor had sacrificed himself to save everyone still in the temple from being obliterated by Ragnarok's massive explosive-suicide, "but, he was still the cause of Nguyen's death, and as the Dark Master he took my parents away from me. I—"

"Need to let those things go, Talea," a strangely familiar voice said from behind her, a voice she hadn't heard in a very long time. It was the same voice that belonged to one that had been one of her best friends while she had lived amongst the other dragons at Shattered Vale, before he vanished without a trace.

"Stardust…?" she gasped in shock, turning around to see none other than the onyx-eyed black dragon that still looked the same as the last time she had seen him, almost eight years ago, "Is that really you?"

"In the flesh, Talea," he said with a warm grin, shifting his over-large wings, "I'm sorry I left without telling you where I was going, but—"

"It's alright," she said, returning his smile kindly, "Whatever the reason was, I know it was important. But, when I heard Spyro and Cynder's daughter say that she'd been visited by a dragon named Stardust, I thought…"

She trailed off as she caught the slightly sheepish and knowing glint in his eye, and he said, "That was a version of me that is back in his non-existent timeline. Technically, it was me, but at the same time it wasn't."

"You and your element are really confusing, you know that?" she said, shaking her head in mock annoyance with a playful grin.

"I've been told that more times than I could count," he told her, walking over and sitting down at her side, "Do you remember when I said that you would end up with someone destined to do great things?"

"And I thought you were being arrogant and talking about yourself?" she said, giggling a bit as she recalled the memory from when she was younger.

"Yeah," the black dragon chuckled, "you gave me the cold shoulder for nearly a week before I explained to you that I'd seen it in the vision pool at the temple. I told you that he would be a great hero that would fight a battle that would decide the fate of everything, and now, it's all playing out."

"You also said that I'd lose someone, someone precious to me," she murmured, looking down at the small dragon mournfully and pleadingly, "Tell me who it is, I'm begging you. I can't take not knowing that any of the people I know and care about might die!"

"Everyone dies eventually, Talea," he whispered, turning away from her, "and even if I did tell you, what would you do? You couldn't save them; I told you that it was their death that inspired everyone to fight harder to avenge them."

"It's not fair," she whimpered, looking down at her front paws in misery, "Everyone around me keeps getting hurt, and there's nothing I can do about it!"

Her outburst startled everyone in the courtyard and they all turned to look at the now-weeping dragoness, Stardust nowhere to be seen. A comforting wing wrapped around her and she turned to see Cynder sitting there, a look of sympathy on her face.

"We can't lose hope, Talea," she murmured, as Dex and Annie crawled up and began to curl themselves around the blue dragoness's legs, "Not while we still have something to fight for."

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Who are you?" Terrador questioned the young dragon standing before him, the one that had rescued himself and the other Guardians from the dungeons they'd been held in.

"I already told, my name is Azimuth," the blue dragon responded, annoyed at having the same question asked of him so many times, "The Elders at Shattered Vale sent me to find out what was happening, since so many were coming to take refuge there once again. They were worried that the Dark Master had returned. I now see that it's much worse than that."

"Indeed," the large green dragon rumbled, "and I fear we haven't seen the end of it, either."

"Whatever are we planning to do, Terrador?" Volteer asked lightning-fast, his yellow wings shifting in anxiety, "Warfang will not be able to withstand more assaults like this one, should we face another wave then the city will surely fall."

"It will not," the earth dragon said determinedly as he looked over to where Cyril was discussing something with Deryx and Ignotus, "We have always survived, and we have only just begun to thrive once more. I'm not going to throw that away like it means nothing."

A small group of moles ran over to where the three dragons stood, all of them battle-worn and tired, but still looking like they were still ready to fight. The leader of the group spoke, "What can we do to help, Guardian of Earth?"

"Ready all the defenses, _all of them_," he responded, looking to the wall of Warfang, "This battle may be over, but one much worse is coming fast. I can feel it, right down to my tail."

xXxXxXxXxXx

Jacy: I know it's not that exciting of a chapter, but the fighting should start next chapter!

Wolf: If whatever person who controls this story makes it so.

Kain: 'Cause we all know that's not you.

Jacy: Oh, shut up.


End file.
